Don't Go Down
by Lucid3762
Summary: When the world is obliterated by the undead, a girl trying to protect her brother rises from the ashes. A thrilling adventure full of love, friendship, and survial. OC's, drama, and action. If you are into long stories, you'll love this. Read and review.
1. Chapter 1

**Hiya everybody! **

**So this is a story I last year and never got around to posting it.**

**If you don't think it's that good, then leave a review telling me, I love it when I see someone say something! I worked really hard on this story and still am working, but this is a long story. Please enjoy and see some of my other works.**

**And before you ask, no, I did not name my character Elsa just because of Frozen, I named her before I ever saw the trailer.**

**~Lucid3762**

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My name is Elsa, and this is my story:

The days before the apocalypse were a blur to me. All I remember was brightly lit skies and not a cloud in sight. It baffled all that cared about weather and how such a moist place, such as the Appalachian Hills I once called my home, could turn into the barren deserts of Arizona or Utah. Everyone enjoyed the sunshine upon their faces, but no one knew the problems soon to face us. Like any other bad thing, there is always a calm before the storm.

I was told that it started any other ways than shown in movies, only a child was involved in creating what destroyed hundreds of years of modern advances. From what little stories I've heard and what mass evidence I've seen, a nerd boy, roughly ten or twelve, bullied by jocks who wanted lunch money or just to blow off steam, wanted a companion that would hurt those bullies that dared to cross his path. He thought like Dr. Victor Frankenstein, a dead animal, brought back to life with electrical power. His new friend, the fox, was brought home immediately after it was found upon the side of the road. The boy went to work, my guess with a little lab coat his mom bought him for Christmas, and turned the torn up fox into something that could have survived for two seconds. There's a big gap on how he got the thing moving, but all know was when the bully came for his lunch money, the fox attacked, and within seconds the kid was dead. When the bully went to the hospital, for I guess the child was sad over an "accidental death" and hoped to revive him, his body started to twitch. Unfortunately for them, they didn't realize that out of the many steps in their reanimating period, this was the first step.

Step 1: twitching. It's their first step to show you that you better run, because soon I'll be after you. Step 2: they start to moan, the traditional zombie moan that you see in the children's shows, they make you believe their alive, when really their brain is starting up again and it's saying _I'm hungry._ _Feed me, flesh looks good to me._ Step 3: chaos. They rain hell upon you. In my experiences, they can stop buses, cows, anything that isn't moving fast or with a weapon. Stories from Creig saying that they stopped a bus full of people and tipped it on it's side, but I never believed him; it's what you learn after years of dealing with living people promising false hope when they really just want to rob you for everything.

Well, back to the big bad boy. He gnawed on the doctor, doctor dies, the doctor comes back and together (not hand in hand though) they slowly infected the hospital. Eventually everyone in Humette, unless they were prepared for the end, was infected; and it spread, faster than anyone had ever seen.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hiya!**

**This is my newest chapter to my book. It is fairly long, but I hope you enjoy!**

**~Lucid3762**

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My first experience with the undead started around the time I was 14. I was sitting at home with, my little brother, Jackson, sat near me watching his all-time-favorite-movie-in-the whole-wide-world, Dawn of the Dead. Looking back, I can see the irony of that movie being played when it all first happened. But none-the-less, we sat, staying away from the intense heat.

Jackson wasn't tall, but he wasn't short either; he was average in every way. His hair, a lightened black matched his ebony eyes that had always shone in the light. He was my little brother, only 5 years-old, but he always believed he had superiority over me because he looked more like our parents. I would always chuckle; similar in our hair color and our pale skin, we looked nothing alike, and I never blamed him. Our only similarity was our hair covered our faces in an "emo" fashion, yet our cheekbones were obviously different, seeing as how mine were obvious and his were hidden behind pinchable cheeks: his face was more rounded while mine was oblong: and, while my hair shone dark, my eyes sparkled with a blueish-grey. The day it all happened, I sat in a comfortable deep blue jeans and a hoodie with the words OBX, since I had gotten it from the Outer Banks in North Carolina, and my favorite pair of light blue Converses. Jackson, ignorant to the upcoming apocalypse, wore loose basketball shorts and a muscle shirt without shoes on. Mom and her boyfriend weren't home, each idly at work around the time we met our first walker. It was Mrs. Joanne, the old lady with whitening hair and an ugly floral dress that lived down the street who constantly walked her little cocker spaniel, Toby. She started hitting the doors, throwing her weight against it, trying to break it open, her mouth vainly biting at the glass. She moaned and groaned and smeared blood, from what I assumed was her own at the time, on our door. Our door was wood and the glass, but it was the glass started to succumb first. I stood up suddenly and gazed at the pounding dead woman.

"Jackson," I told him, "go down to the basement. Now." I didn't taking my eyes off of Mrs. Joanne.

"Why?" he said, not wanting to move from his spot and showing it, his face still glued to the television.

"Just, go, please." I looked at him sharply, "I'm right behind you.". He obeyed with a defeated sigh, and he trudged to the basement, but I hurried him. I tried to ignore Mrs. Joanne banging her body upon the splintering door, but her cries were so great, I could hear her as we were entering the basement and as I shut the door behind me.

"Why was Mrs. Joanne pounding on the door?" he asked ignorantly.

"I don't know." I replied.

"Why did you ignore her? She's friendly, right?" he continued.

"Jackson, not now. Just, right now, pretend you are Michael and-"

"I don't wanna be Michael! He dies! I wanna be Kenneth!" he protested.

I sighed, "Fine, be Kenneth, we have to go and find a safe place." I told him, "Now be quiet."

We got to the basement's garage, luckily, whatever was going on outside hadn't found its way into our basement, but God knew how long it would be until Mrs. Joanne busted the door and I could hear the carnage going on outside. Yet, I think the strangest part was I can remember for the life of me what happened after that until we found the luxury Botswana train, we just happened upon one day, I think the fifth day of the apocalypse.

It wasn't brand new, but it was good enough for us. Rust was in some parts of locomotive and moss on the rest. We trekked our way to the beginning of the train, the words "Botswana" printed on the front in large red letters. I hoped and prayed that it wasn't overrun with those things that I called walkers. We made it to where the locomotive began and the horrendous cockpit that was empty while cars littered in front. I climbed up the silver ladder with Jackson in tow, one rung at a time until we finally got onto the rusty-silver platform between the coal stacks and the cockpit. Luckily, nobody was dumb enough to take the coal, but they didn't exactly know how to start a train either. The bigger problem was, neither did we. I didn't know what to do, I was lost for words.

In the train's cockpit was as any other train would hold, a mass number of buttons and knobs and flashing lights, all beckoning to be pressed and a flimsy chair that a person would sit in all day. But what wasn't natural was the floor where dried blood laid, and lots of it too. It was apparent, someone decided a swift dead would be better than survival. Dried blood splatters hit the buttons and stained them while a double-barrell shotgun lay next to the flimsy chair. The guesses were confirmed when I proceeded to open the gun and saw one round still in the double barrels.

"Look." said Jackson, pointing to a figure just in front of the train. I hadn't noticed the figure there before, and wasn't entirely sure if it was safe or not, and the last thing I'd want to do is waste the one shot that I may need. I stepped out of the cockpit, the shotgun clutched in my hands so tight, my knuckles were turning white.

"Hey." I said in a normal voice. The man turned to face us, his aged face looked upwards in fear, but other than that, he looked like any person would. He wasn't young, but he wasn't old either. His brown hair stuck out of his head in thin strands and he wore the traditional farmers outfits; blue denim overalls and an orange t-shirt. When he got a good look at me and Jackson, he looked stunned.

"How long have y'all been there?" he asked, his Southern accent was thick.

"Not to long, whatcha doin' there?" I told him nonchalantly.

"Pushing cars outta the way," he wiped his hands on his already dirty overalls, "care to help? This train could get up and running and we be outta here before sunset."

"You can drive this train?".

"Psh," he scoffed, "Drive it, I was practically raised in it."

"How about I do something less labourious. Possibly save our skins and check out the rest of the train, there may be fuel and food."

He sighed, "Alright, just hurry. I wanna go before sunset."

"Why?"

"They get more dangerous and risky during the night.". With that he went back to pushing cars and we went back into the cockpit.

"Now Jackson, I want you to do me a favor. If we find something… not pretty, don't scream." I told my little brother. He nodded, not asking any questions. I searched around the entire front of the locomotive, I had to have something to protect us quietly; and the gun was a last resort. I finally found a fire poker by the place where coal was put. I grabbed ahold of it and held onto both weapons when we entered the first cart; it was for food.

The bar stood without any cares while the cash register held strong, the rest of the cart was dirtied tables that looked abandoned in a rush; glasses were knocked over and broken on the floor, dried splotches of whatever drink had been there littered everywhere, and plates full of stale and rotten food laid everywhere with blood all over the floors. We looked around and marveled at the mass waste of food. I opened the cash register, remembering the job I had as a waitress in Olive Garden. In it was piles of cash; 10's, 20's, even 100's! I closed the bar and remembered what I was supposed to do. Food, I told myself over and over again.

"Come here Jackson." I commanded Jackson to do. He complied and walked over to me. I grabbed him underneath his arms and hoisted him up onto the bar table.

"Now keep watch." I ordered, "If you see any movement, even if you think it's nothing. Tell me immediately. Okay?". He nodded quietly and looked around, panning his head like a security camera. I went to work, opening cabinets and taking a mental stock in my head. In the first cabinet I opened, it was filled to the brim with cans of soup, olives, beans, and other canned goods. I was ecstatic, so much food and this was just in the first compartment. When we were done with that cart, I set Jackson on the ground and slowly, checking every table, we made our way to the second cart.

In the second cart, first class, stood as still as a gory picture with the blood everywhere. Something bad had to be in here, there was no way this entire train was completely deserted from those things. I did to this cart just as I had done to the first, slowly making my way down each chair checking to make sure nothing was going to pop out at us. When I was sure that no one was in here except for us, I opened each of the compartments above the seats to find mass amounts of luggage. I grabbed every single bag from their resting spot and told Jackson to carefully open up each one and search for things that could be useful. Jackson found himself a pair of stretchy jeans that helped with his problem that was temporarily fixed with holes as well as some tennis shoes and coat over his muscle shirt; he found me a blue t-shirt made for exercise and a couple of hair-ties and well as loads of makeup.

This went on for the rest of the carts until we got to the twenty-first cart. You could hear the walkers inside, it was as if someone had stuffed every passenger in there and left them to die, and at the hurried glance I got at them; yep, thats what happened to them.

"C'mon Jackson." I beckoned Jackson away from the scene. We headed back from the twentieth cart quietly and quickly so the walkers wouldn't freak over us and try to bust out.

We reached the front of the Botswana. The farmer was hard at work and all the cars had been cleared away. He was in the cockpit fiddling with the switches and knobs and buttons in the flimsy chair.

"Ah, good. You're alive. So no walkers in the Botswana?" he said cheerfully.

"Well in the twenty-first cart was a mass load of them. It looked as if they were forced there and left for dead." I added. The man nodded solemnly and stood from his seat to go back there. We followed and when we got to the twenty-first cart, he lifted a big stake from in between the two doors.

"There," he said wiping his hands of the grease left in the stake, "When we push off, they won't be connected to us anymore." He walked back to the cockpit while I stood there, gazing at the walkers with my mind racing. They were once us, people, desperate to survive; and now, they're shoved into a tiny cart way in the back and left for dead. I felt a hand hold tightly to mine; I looked down and saw Jackson grasping my hand and looking at me. Kneeling beside him and he jumped into my arms. We walked back, him in my arms to the first cart where I dropped him off at the table.

"Stay here for one second. Remember-"

"If I see anything, even if I think it's nothing, shout." he finished for me. I smiled proudly and walked into the cockpit. Standing at the door, I watched the man work the controls.

"You said you were raised here. Did you know the driver?"

"Yeah. Name's Dean by the way. Dean Winhall." he answered, more focused on the buttons.

"Hello Dean. I'm Elsa and that was my brother Jackson… Do you know what happened to the people in the twenty-first cart?"

"Yes."

"Can you tell me?"

"One got on, he was bitten and we didn't check. Dad got him to Twenty-One, but by then it was too late. One at a time people were shoved back to Twenty-One, corpses that reanimated. My dad couldn't take the pain of knowing that he failed at saving those people." the farmer rubbed the blood stain on the wall gently.

"The driver was your dad..". Our conversation was cut short when the Botswana tugged forward and, slowly but surely, she kicked off. I choked out a laugh,

"We're moving!" I cried with joe.

"Yep," the farmer laughed, "We're outta here!". I ran over to the next cart and saw Jackson looking out the window, his face pressed on the glass as he watched the trees fly by. He was smiling broadly.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hiya!**

**Well for my last two chapters, I figured this story hasn't really hit off. With the exception of one follower and a couple views. I really do want to post this story, but I cannot do it if people won't see and/or tell me what i'm doing wrong or right. **

**I love reviews, views, etc. **

**Enjoy the next chapter.**

**~Lucid3762**

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We travelled long and far before our first year had past. Jackson and I cleaned and made the Botswana as livable as possible. We mended One, sweeping up glass plates and glasses, cleaning the table. Two was beyond repair, we tried to dispose of the broken pieces of tables and chairs that littered the room; it was hideous and random pieces of furniture stuck out of the floors. Three through Twenty were the same, no chairs being taken away unless we had brute strength and the right tools. Yet the same was of every cart, blood stained the walls and

Over the many travels we met a couple while on a raid at the Bass Pro Shop in a small town; all that was legible of the sign was Winc-st-r.

It was a small raid, Dean stood watch while Jackson and I moved quickly throughout the shop. We grabbed many things, sharp fishing knives, warm clothes for the upcoming winter, anything we could that could keep us alive. When we got to the second floor, we continued to search the clothes rack, grabbing things that looked warm in all sizes and stuffing them in the backpacks. I had just turned the corner in the shoes section when I ran into a woman. She was alive, with chocolate brown hair and hazel eyes wearing a blue tank-top covered by a leather jacket and jeans with black combat boots. She was startled at seeing me and raised her handgun.

"I'm alive!" I cried with a harsh whisper. The woman stared at me in shock, her beautiful face dirty and her clothes ripped.

"My god." she turned to the isle she stepped out of, "Alec, there's children here. Living children.". A man, I assumed Alec hurriedly poked his head from behind the shelf and stepped out. He was a tall blond man with stunning blue eyes and wore a black cotton hoodie with jeans and combat boots matching the woman.

"Hello little girl." Alec said to me in a soothing voice, "Where's your parents?"

"Dead." I said bluntly. They seemed struck by that answer.

"Are you alone?" the woman asked

"No," I turned to Jackson, who stuck his dirty face from behind my leg, "Who are you two?"

"I'm Jamie," said the woman, "and this is my boyfriend Alec. Do you two have somewhere safe to stay? We need a stable place for a little while."

"We have a train…" Jackson said shyly. I hushed him, knowing that we weren't supposed to trust strangers.

"A train? Does it work?" asked a hopeful Jamie. I nodded and the couple looked relieved.

"Can we please come along, we're worth more than you think." Alec told me.

"What could you possibly bring to our train?" I asked

"My boyfriend's a doctor and I was a nurse!" Jamie cried out, "Please, we have food!". I had to make a decision whether or not to let two unknown people in our train with the promise of food and doctors. Glancing at Jackson, I made my decision.

"Okay. But right now, we need you to grab anything warm in all sizes for this winter. Go now and we'll meet you at the front. Be quick.". The couple nodded and hurried through the rest of their "shopping". We all left Bass Pro Shops and got back to the train before the sunset.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello again!**

**This is the fourth chapter in Don't Go Down.**

**Don't forget to review, follow, favorite, whatever else you can do.**

**Thanks and enjoy**

**~Lucid3762**

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Dean wasn't happy when we showed him the newcomers,

"No, we hardly have enough food for us, now we have two more to feed!" he scolded, keeping his eyes on the tracks..

"Dean! We have food to last us for months, and if we stick to the rations, we could have enough food for an entire year! These two people have offered food and they are both medically experienced! We need them and they need us!" I argued back.

"You should have left them there." his eyes never wandered from the tracks during our argument.

"After one year with us Dean, I would have thought we'd known each other better. When I saw those passengers in Twenty-One, I was on the verge of tears. Too many people have died in this past year, my parents, my friends, all those I had ever cared about are dead!"

"You have Jackson! I have nobody!"

"You have us! These people needed us Dean. They'll pull themselves, I know it. Please."

"Okay. But the minute they stop being useful, they're gone."

"Fair enough.".

I headed out of the cockpit and into One. The pair we had picked up sat at the table and sipped the small cup of coffee rations I had made for Dean (he had some too).

"We can't thank you enough Ms…?" Jamie started.

"Lee," I finished, "Elsa Lee and my brother Jackson Lee."

"Oh, so is your dad okay with us staying here?" she asked. I looked at her quizzingly

"Jamie, that's not her dad… Remember, she said her parents were dead." Alec whispered to his girlfriend. I said nothing and got behind the counter to scrape off the dirt on the plates.

"Oh…" she said to Alec, "I-I'm sorry."

"Don't be." I went over to the paper that kept stock of our food and scratched out the ounce pack of coffee I had used to make the adults their coffee and took stock of the new food these two brought with them, "So, how have you two been working through this hell?" canned beans, canned soup, a twenty pound bag of white and brown rice, canned fruits, canned vegetables, a fifty five hundred milliliters of water in a can, and two hundred and fifty rounds from pistols, shotguns, and semi-automatic rifles.

"Well… Is the driver the leader here?" asked Alec awkwardly.

"No. We haven't assigned leaders." my mind was elsewhere as I stacked the cans with their kind and dumped the bags of rice into the massive bin we had underneath the sink, "Dean drives her, Jackson and I clean, and I take control of organization, rations, and raids."

"Sound's like women take charge here." piped up Jamie, "Sound's like you rule this world."

"I don't think that's the greatest idea."

"Why not?" she asked.

"Because, I'm fifteen."

"I'd much rather have a fifteen year old girl with her little brother to look after than a forty year old brat who has no one to think of but himself." Alec said and sipped the last of his coffee.

"Me too." Jamie agreed and took hers and Alec's cups to me. I grabbed the cups and drained the last of their coffee into my stomach. As Jamie sat down, her face contorted in pain.

"Alec, it's happening again." she said. Alec seemed to know what to do and quickly ran to his girlfriend and laid her on the floor.

"What's going on?" I stopped what I was doing and ran to their side, "Is she pregnant?"

"What?" Alec looked startled, "No, it's her system. Do you have painkillers?"

"What is wrong with her system?"

"Now's not the time!"

"What's going on!"

"Her digestive system was industrialized and her nervous system was given a shot of antibodies that prevent her from being infected if a walker bit her. I have it too." he explained.

"W-wha-so you're, like, cyborgs?"

"No, we just have metal instead of organs and a protector." he rolled up his sleeve to show me a scar on his arm in the shape of a mouth. Holes now covered up showed where someone had bit him, "Jamie and I saw this coming, all of this. We, we prepared and we were right. I was bit on the first day but lived; and, well, here we are."

"Can this be replicated?" I asked.

"Yes, but it would take a while." he glanced at me, "You're not thinking of doing this, are you?"

"I'm not sure."

"Alec, I think it's past." Jamie spoke up. I had forgotten she was there; she was waited in pain silently while Alec and I were arguing. Jamie slowly stood up and headed back, "Where can we sleep?"

"Um, theres an open room in Nineteen. The doors are labeled in big yellow letters, so you'll know." I answered. With that, they were gone into their rooms and I was standing alone in the food cart.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hiya! I'm getting through chapters faster than I know what to do with.**

**Thanks to all the people who read my old writings.**

**~Lucid3762**

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Time passed slowly and, before we knew it, it had been two months. It was Jamie who asked first, I still don't know why Alec was so afraid of me, but she asked while I was drawing,

"Ms. Lee?"

"You know you can call me Elsa right?" I looked up from my horrendous work of a tribal yin-yang.

"Elsa," she asked

"Yes Jamie?"

"Alec and I were thinking," she sat on the foot of my bed, "since we're doctors, can we have Twenty for a hospital…"

"It seems like a good idea, we'll get started clearing the cart once we have all the tools."

"We have the tools. We picked them up in Winchester."  
"Winchester?"

"The town you found us in. We had overheard you talking about the tables and chairs and picked up some tools to get rid of them."

"Great, where are they?"

"In Twenty.". I smiled, she was smart, and that's something useful in an apocalypse.

We got started on Twenty, their useful tools were sledgehammer, a couple of screwdrivers, and a dolly. I laughed, and we went to work. Alec, with his muscular body, was in charge of moving the tables and chairs once Jamie and I had beat them enough to be moved.

On, I think, the tenth day, Jamie and I sat down on the floor; it was cleared away of all the tables except on in the front with two of the ugly printed train chairs facing towards the door.

"How did you and Alec meet?" I asked randomly.

"Oh, um, it was not to long after I had been admitted to Inova Fairfax Hospital down in Falls Church, Virginia. I was just starting out as a nurse there when I got my first patient. I think his name was Ron Currie, had to have a gastric bypass where-"

"I know what a gastric bypass surgery is Miss."

"You can call me Jamie. Anyways, I was in charge of making sure Mr. Currie was comfortable; fluffing pillows, bathing him, getting his foot due to his weight, stuff like that. But on the day of the surgery, then here comes Surgeon Alec Delossantos, the 'best surgeon America's got to offer'. I didn't like him at first, everything about him seemed cocky and just overall jock. The moment he saw me though, he got this look in his eye, and it seemed as if everything that was the high school reputation was washed out of him. After the surgery, he went immediately to me-and I mean immediately, he was all bloody and in his scrubs when he walked over to me and said-"

"Hello, so the entire time I was in the surgery room, I couldn't help think of you. Your beauty and kindness to Mr. Currie was astonishing 'and in your smile I see something more beautiful than the stars.' Care to go and have dinner at Pistones?" Alec finished for her once he walked in.

"I swooned, that line, the one about the stars was from my favorite book; apparently it was his too. He told me that he kept up his teenager attitude because of his colleagues and we spent the entire night chatting and talking about each other." Jamie recollected dreamily.

"Afterwards, I took her down to the lake where we ate ice cream and watched the stars. Turns out, she liked stargazing as much as I did." Alec finished

"It was the best first date a girl could ask for. As time went on, Alec changed for the better and dropped his rude attitude and became the man I know today.". She leaned on his chest and sighed happily.

"That was, oh, four years ago." Alec told me.

"Yes, three years before the apocalypse. What an anniversary present from the world.". She sighed, and we got back to work cleaning up the tough blood stains on the floor.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello!**

**This is has been a busy week for me so I may not be posting so much, but I will try.**

**Keep viewing and review my work. I'm confused on why it's so hard to get a review from people.**

**Anyway, enjoy!**

**~Lucid3762**

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We arrived in Falls Church not to long after we finished cleaning Twenty. Sitting on one of the panels of the cockpit, I held out a pad and pen that held our list for medical supplies we would need. We went over the list.

"Okay now," I put the list the pocket of the camo cargo pants I wore and pulled the blue t-shirt Jackson found on the day we found her started over it, "if you find food, grab it. And if we could find anything that could help with hygiene or clothes, that would be wonderful. Winter is coming soon and we need to be prepared." I looked at everybody, " Now,stick together, and Dean. You know what to do." Dean nodded and climbed up the ladder onto her roof to be the Botswana scope out for us. He gave us the all familiar "all clear" signal and my group of four left the and headed to Inova Fairfax Hospital in the middle of town. It wasn't too long and that hard until we reached the doors of the hospital.

"So the monitors would be upstairs in the 5th floor at least, the antibiotics would be in the very back on ground level, and if we wanna take sheets off of beds, I'm sure they're still there so go ahead." Jamie told the me as I eyed the dirty glass doors of the hospital.

I nodded, "Okay, so here's the plan," I turned to the three I had, "Jamie and Jackson, go over to the medicine and grab as much as you can if there's any left. Alec and I will go for the monitors. How many beds can we fit in your cart?"

"Ten." answered Alec, "So ten monitors and a hell of a lot of medicine."

"Okay, everyone good?" I confirmed. Jamie nodded, Jackson nodded, Alec nodded, and I nodded.

We opened the hospital doors, it was obvious someone had been here; whether that was walkers or people would be determined later; the dust on the floor had footprints, some shuffled, and some had an obvious stride. Blood caked the floor and a couple completely devoured corpses lined the lobby. Chairs stood in their place and magazines scattered the floor. We split off at the stairs, I said my goodbyes to Jackson and Alec and Jamie shared a quick kiss. Alec and I headed up the stairs towards the monitors. The stairs were colored an ugly tan and the stairs were obviously rusted.

"So, four years eh?" I said, we quickly passed floor two, a large white "2" painted on the door.

"What?"

"Four years and you two are still boyfriend and girlfriend."

"That's still a short time," he hesitated, "isn't it?"

"Well around the fifth of sixth year is when the boyfriend, or girlfriend, proposes. Or so I've heard and seen."

"Should I propose to Jamie? I never really thought too much about it after we saw our first walker."

"And before?"

"Before… I was going to buy a ring. I almost did, but the Jared owner skipped town. I think due to some money he owed."

"Well, you've got some luck."

Alec scoffed, "Yeah, a boat load."

"If we find a walker with a suitable ring, wanna take it? I mean, I have this." I fished out the ring my dad had given me when I was fourteen. It was a spinning silver ring with half-spheres lining the spinning part of the ring, "It was my dad's, it might fit you." I handed it to him as we passed floor four.

Alec stopped, "I couldn't possibly take this Elsa."

"But you're gonna." I forced his hand open and put the ring in his palm, "Try it on, see if it fits.". Alec put the ring on his left hand on the third finger; it was a little loose, but when he shook his hand, the ring held onto his finger firmly.

"It fits." he looked at me, "Elsa I can't thank you enough."

"Don't thank me yet." I started walking the final flight of stairs, "We still have to find her engagement ring, her ring, the dress, the tuxedos, a bunch of stuff. It'll be the perfect walker wedding!" I laughed and stopped at the big metallic door with a white '5'. With a swing, the door opened with ease.

The room was like any normal hospital ward, the white sheets that were a bit dirty, the monitors, everything had that old traditional hospital feel, even the air felt cleaned through the hellish stink; one corpse laid on the many beds; luckily for us, it was officially dead. Alec walked up to the first bed and beckoned me over. He showed me how to disable a monitor correctly and left me to get the others on my own.

"Hey," I whispered, "wrap the monitors in the sheets, that way we have sheets and monitors without space loss." Alec nodded and, once he unhooked monitor after monitor, he wrapped each of them individually. I finally unplugged our tenth monitor, wrapped it up, and I beckoned Alec to the door as I was exiting.

"That's all, lets head back to the others." Alec said. We left the room, giddy from our fortunes. When we reached the ground floor, we noticed that Jamie nor Jackson were here.

"Meds?" I mouthed to Alec. He nodded and we cautiously crept down the hallway. We made it to the medicine room; we saw movement. Slowly we opened the door and in the room was Jackson and Jamie.

"Hey you two." Jamie whispered with a smile, "We're almost done, this place was looted except for one locked cabinet. I got the key card though, thank God I was so messy I forgot the card in my bag" she held up her bag. I nodded and we kept watch at the door while they finished the raid. Side-by-side, they headed back to the entrance.

As they were walking back, fortune slipped from us. Jamie's unzipped backpack had a plastic bottle fall out. It hit the floor with a loud bang. We all turned to look at Jamie, her eyes were wide as she picked up the liquid antibiotics. You could hear from within the hospital the roar and felt the shuffling of feet from the walkers rushing towards the sound.

"Time to go." I said quickly, not caring about noise. We ran out of the hospital as quick as we could. We ran, and ran until we came upon a camping store we would have raided on the way back and ran inside through the broken glass doors. The store was full of tents, sleeping bags, and other packable things.

"Quickly, hide in the tents!" I ordered. Jackson, Alec, Jamie and I ran into the large, orange tent and quickly zipped up the orange door just as the first of the horde poked their heads through the glass. I couldn't see what was happening, but I heard it. The slapping of hundreds of feet on the ground, the rest of the glass on the door being shattered and tearing apart skin and spilling organs. I held my hand to my mouth, as well as Jamie and Alec; not only was this to mask the smell of the already rotting corpses, but this was to silence my breath and not cry out loud. I turned my head towards the few people whom I had gotten to know. Jamie was clinging to Alec, silent tears running down her face while Alec stared at me with a cool face. Jackson also stared at me and I wrapped my arms around him.

"I'm sorry." I whispered without being heard.

Just then, as if my gods were on my side, a loud crash was heard as what I assumed survivors trying to raid a place a couple of blocks away from the camping store we were hiding in. As the walkers shuffled past us, a couple ran into the tent, either falling over only to be trampled by their own kind, or just hit the tent and moved on. I'll never know what our saving grace was, but I couldn't have been more thankful for the soul, or souls, that most likely died so that we lived. Once the last walker was out of the door and I could hear no more of them, I unzipped the tent and stepped out, the gun Alec let me borrow raised. The store was quiet, no one was there, they were all at the party, which erupted a scream of bloody murder and a couple of gunshots. Jackson and the couple stepped out of the tent and looked around with wide eyes.

I glanced at them, "Grab anything you find useful. We'll need it for winter.". Alec and Jamie ran upstairs for clothes while Jackson ran for the lively stuff. I stood there, watching as flash by flash lite the building while the survivors were fighting for their lives. Not even all the walkers were in the damn building by the time the firing stopped. They lingered there, as if saying What are we to do now? Any more flesh we can take?

The group grabbed heated blankets, plastic bowls, sporks and knives, flashlights, and quickly went through the clothes, grabbing coats, pants, and shoes for winter while I watched our saviors die. We ran and ran until we finally arrived at the station. Dean was there, looking at us with wide eyes on top of the train.

"I could hear the commotion." he stated, "Was any of y'all bit?"

I shook my head, "We ran to the camp store and hid in a tent."

"The gunshots?" he asked hopefully.

I shook my head, " While they were getting supplies I watched. They're so heartless, the walkers. They stayed in the building, hardly moving, just the few that were lucky enough devoured the living. I mean Jesus."

"It's okay Elsa-" Alec started and put a hand on my shoulder.

I jerked away and, before I knew it, I was yelling, "No! It's not okay! How many people have died during this? More than a hundred? More than a thousand? Hell, maybe more than a million! For all we know that person could have found a cure to all this! Maybe they were important!"

"They saved us!" Alec told me.

"But they died! And now, their corpse is being fed upon like its frickin' Thanksgiving!" I yelled back.

"Elsa," Dean said to me softly, "I know you're angry, this world is unfair, but people die; they have for a while. Just, please, get in the train"

"I'll get into the train." I grumbled and stormed in through the door to my room in Eleven.

I didn't come out for a while. I sat in there, furiously drawing scenes of walkers lying dead on the floor. I praised myself, which cheered me up. As gruesome as the picture was, it was very detailed. Every wrinkle of skin, every open gash as if taken by a camera. I heard the swoosh of the door opening and the all-too-familiar sound of wind passing through the cracks of the locomotive; it was Jackson. He was dressed out of his raid clothes and wearing some pajamas Alec or Jamie must have snagged in the camp store. They were plain and grey, but they looked warm and comfortable. He carried and apple, split expertly down the middle, no doubt by Jamie. Jackson sat on the foot of my bed and put one half of the apple by my foot and started eating the other one while observing my picture.

"It's scary." he stated.

"I guess it is, not for a five year-olds eyes.". I started to reach towards it when he swatted my hand away and continued to observe it.

"It's scary, but it's cool." he said. I couldn't help but smile and watched my little bro stare at horrific scene. He looked up, "Aren't you going to eat your apple?"

"Oh, no no; I'm sure Alec or Jamie or Dean could use it more than I could."

"But-but, you haven't eaten in days!" he protested

"And I've not eaten for longer. I'll go give it to Alec in exchange for some work."

"You're going to get that metal stuff your system like Jamie, aren't you?"

"... Yes. Someone needs to be around to protect you."

"But what if you die?"

"I won't. We grabbed sterilizer upstairs, and I saw you grabbed some meds, so I should be fine."

"Should be!" he exclaimed. Just then Jamie walked into my room, probably passing to get back to hers.

"Hey guys." she said coolly and continued towards the other end of my room.

"Hey Jamie." I said back.

"Tell her not to do it Jamie!" busted Jackson

Jamie stopped with her hand on the door, "Do what? What do you want to do Elsa?" she asked.

"She wants her system metal, like yours and Alecs." cried Jackson

Jamie looked at me in surprise, "Why on Earth would you want that? It was brutal for Alec and I."

"Because, I need to look after Jackson; I can't get bit and die while he's still alive!"

"But what about the pain?"

"I don't care. And now, we have medicine, right. You two grabbed some pain killers."

"No. I won't let you!" cried Jamie again.

"I won't ask you then." I calmly got up from my bed and started walking to the doccart

When I finally arrived at the doccart , Alec was sitting at the table with a ration cup we found at the camp store full of coffee even though it was clearly noon.

"Ah, hello."

"Hey." I said shakily, "Can you do a protector a favor?"

"Depends on what it is." he replied smugly.

"'Metalize my system." I asked and somewhat commanded. His expression changed; he went from playful to serious in a matter of seconds.

"Why would you want that? It took Jamie and I days to find the parts and get it all working."

"But I saw you taking parts and tubes when we were on the raid in Falls Church. And you have the vial!" I turned to go to the back where they kept the medicine and the vial of clear liquid that moved but was stopped by a hand on my shoulder. Alec spun me around to face him, his face set on a serious mood.

"Why? Why go through what Jamie and I suffered?" he kneeled down to be level with me.

"Its Jackson. I can't leave him in a world like this. First mom, then dad, then me? I don't think so.". Alec sighed and gestured his hand to signal me to go and tell Dean to stop at the next station. I nodded and headed back up, passing Eleven. It was an empty room. Jackson and Jamie were sitting at the table in One, their faces blank when as they stared at me.

"He'll do it, won't he?" Jamie asked without any emotion and I nodded. She also nodded, "I realize this is to protect your brother, and I'm not saying I'm happy about you doing this, but I'm not stopping you.". I smiled at her, gave her a quick hug, our first contact since I'd met her, and went up to the cockpit to tell Dean about our next stop.


	7. Chapter 7

**Hiya!**

**So I've been kinda thinking I may not keep posting this story, I'm not so sure and if you like this story, you should tell me. **

**I also realize no one may be reading this, but its still worth a try. **

**Thank you guys! And enjoy.**

**~Lucid3762**

* * *

It was dark around the time she slid into the new station. The rusted sign read Harriet as it hung from one chain.

"Should we go out in the night?" I asked.

"I think we should be okay as long as we stick to the shadows.". We went into Two where all the clothes Jackson, Jamie, Alec, Dean, and I had found ever since the Botswana started back up. Alec grabbed some lightweight black shirts and cargo pants to match. When we were all suited up and ready to go, Dean carefully opened the roof door and Alec, Dean, and I, accompanied by Jamie, went to the roof.

"Remember, stick to the shadows. Fine any pipes and stick them in the bags, no matter how worn down they look." Alec restated for the umpteenth time.

"I would like to be out of this station before noon tomorrow if you please." Dean mentioned to us. I nodded at the two boys.

"Should be plenty of time to get some of the vital pieces." Alec confirmed.

"Good luck hon." Jamie kissed Alec goodbye.

"I'll be back for lunch." he replied. We slid down to the ground and headed off.

"No later." I heard Jamie say to herself as she watched us disappear into the night.

On the streets Alec and I searched for pipes and other metal things we would need.

"Do you know what a human system looks like?" he picked up a rusted tube from the ground.

"Yea, digestive stuff.". I grabbed yet another piece of metallic tube and shoved it in my bad.

"Well, you'll also need something for your nervous system.". I looked at him, confused, "Your veins Elsa. The walkers bite will travel up your veins, stop your heart which will stop your brain. But the virus goes into your brain and starts it back up turning you into this." he gestured to a walker strolling past. I hadn't even known it was there; it was so silent, yet now, so close. It was strange, even after an entire year of being the apocalypse, I had never seen a walker up close.

She was ugly, a pale color and an awkward walk. It was clear this person put up a fight and lost. Multiple gaping holes covered her body and tried blood stained her face and clothes and, if she was wearing any, her shoes. Her teeth, probably a dazzling white once, were now yellow and brown and cracked to hell. Alec still paid her no mind until we had to leave for another area. We snuck past the undead woman, her image freshly in my mind to this day.

"So, how are we going to remake veins. Aren't those, I dunno, important?" I asked Alec.

"Well we're not going to remake your veins Boss, we're going to have to inject you with that vial of liquid you mentioned. There's antibodies in there that fight off the infection. That's what caused Jamie and I the pain; a mixture of so many chemicals coursing through your veins; you feel as if you have hot skillets all over you."

"Its been a while since I was burnt by a skillet." I stated as we continued and picked up another metal part.

"If my memory serves well, the hardest part was finding a car and some parts to make movement more natural." Alec told himself as we came around the corner to find multiple cars that had been left and rusted. The sun rose, its brilliant light shining over the small town and giving everything a golden glow. The walkers faces, looked towards the sun and they started shuffling back into the houses' their thin numbers thinned out even more; it made it easier to pry open a car's hood and steal some nuts, bolts, and gears.

"I think we're good," Alec said finally, "And just in time too, look." I looked upwards; the sun was almost halfway up the sky. Boy, I thought to myself, time is passing way too fast for me to keep up. Quickly, we rushed back to the train and made it with time to spare.

"Welcome back you two. Got everything you need Alec?" Dean asked, after he opened the roof hatch and descended into the cockpit.

"I think we're good." Alec said, smiling at me. We walked into the platform in between One and Two and entered our train. I couldn't hide it, I smiled back, giddy at the fact I was going to be able to protect Jackson more than ever.


	8. Chapter 8

I accompanied Alec back to the doccart where Jamie was there at the reception desk. She looked up from her work of taking stock of how much medicine and how many milliliters were in each bottle and smiled.

"Welcome back dear." she said.

"Good to be back love." he replied. We went behind the curtain where I emptied the pockets of their spare parts we took from the car and the backpack of the pipes and other metallic things onto a bed.

He looked at each part, "We have to clean each of these in bleach and sterilizer." I nodded and got to work, putting each piece of metal into a bucket of sterilizer and bleach one at a time. For one day and half of a night, my life was dedicated to putting parts in a sterilizer bucket, letting it sit for an hour, drying it off, putting it in a bleach bucket, letting that sit (while waiting for the bleach to clean, I would dry off the sterilized metals), drying those off and giving them to Alec where he, on his own time, assembled them into replicas of my small and large intestine, stomach, and liver. Finally, after five days of constant cleaning and building, my metallic innards were cleaned and ready to be inserted in my body.

The day of the operation, I was nervous. I gorged myself on my rations, hungry from our raid. I knew that I would keep my taste buds all of those months that I would purposefully starve myself before the apocalypse never prepared me for the idea of me rarely eating because of metal work. I held tightly to Jackson, telling him that I would be okay and that I'll see him on the other side of the curtain; it's not that I didn't Alec, because I did, but I was afraid that I would never see Jackson again.

The walk to the doccart seemed to stretch on for miles, like walking on death row. I panicked, but made sure not to show it.

I arrived, the big yellow number Twenty shone in the sunlight with the words doccart painted underneath by Jamie's hand. The pair were there dressed in previously bloodstained clothing from what I hoped was their last operations on their spouse when I walked in. They greeted me with a smile and led me behind the curtain we had set up without a word. I lied on the bed and watched as they strapped down my arms and legs and set up all the surgery equipment. Luckily, with the power that powered her also powered the now plugged in and fully functional monitors we stole from the hospital; yet, with this luxury, we didn't have anything that could knock me unconscious for the surgery. I knew though, that once I was cut open and looked, I would faint. I wasn't that lucky.

When surgery started, Alec asked Jamie to hand him the cutting utensil called a scalpel. I cried out when Alec cut into my stomach, the pain was unbearable and I was begging to be unconscious. It wasn't until I saw my own stomach did I start to panic; it was too fleshy and covered in blood. Quickly, Jamie held onto my new metallic stomach while Alec poured some clear and sizzling liquid into the metallic canister. I screamed and only then did I realize why they restrained me, I was thrashing, but the restraints held firm and kept me to my spot. I don't know what caused me to pass out, but all I remember was everything going black and my fear that I was dying.

The next day, I awoke in the doccart with Jackson, Jamie, and Alec surrounding my bed. Jackson sat on the chair that I guessed Jamie pulled up, dark bags were under his eyes from a sleepless night.

"Hey sleepy head." Alec said softly.

"Hi" I said weakly

"Jackson was worried sick." Jamie told me

"I wasn't the only one" he smiled at Jamie and Alec. Jamie looked over at Alec.

"How long was I out?" I asked

"One week." answered Alec.

"A week?!" I exclaimed. They all looked at me with serious faces. I tried to sit up, but everything flared into a burning pain; I fell back onto the bed in agony. Alec was right, it felt like skillets were on my body like a suit.

"That'll last for the rest of the day. Your brain needs to think of what the chemicals is doing to protect you." Alec said, "It happened with Jamie, still does because her big brain can't handle the antibodies fully." he added. I nodded and stayed bedridden for the day. I didn't feel productive and had a feeling of uselessness. Our main rule was to pull your weight and be productive everyday; it made me feel like I wasn't fit to be on the Botswana while I recovered.

After one day of staying in bed when I was conscious, I decided to go and see how far along I could walk in the locomotive. My legs swung around and hit the ground on the low-hanging bed; I slowly put pressure on my legs, one at a time. It was difficult, having been nine days from being on my feet, but I managed and, with loads of willpower, I took my first step in more than a week. I managed to get to the curtain which I opened slid open viciously. Behind the curtain was Jamie finishing up on the stocks of medicine. She looked up at me with surprise and quickly got up to assist me.

"What are you doing out of bed? Let me help you get back." she reached toward my arm.

I swatted her hand, "No, I wanna see if I can walk. I gotta run during raids.". She was obviously not happy, but accompanied me to the front where Alec and Jackson were having their mornings rations of half an apple for them each. Alec saw me first with Jamie and stood to help.

"She doesn't need help," Jamie smiled at me, "she walked all twenty carts by herself, the spaces between the carts included.". She stood beside Alec and leaned on him; Alec smiled and grabbed her hand.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Like I was in Hell for nine days in a wheelchair."

Alec laughed, "It should go away soon. After all, you're making a fast recovery."


	9. Chapter 9

It wasn't a month after my surgery, when on a raid with Alec for some medicine in Armenia in Pennsylvania when I spotted a walker with a beautiful diamond ring on her finger. I pointed it out to Alec,

"Looks like we found the final essential piece." I smiled as we headed for the undead wife. She saw us when we were ten feet away. She let out a piercing scream and slowly strided straight towards us where I waited ready with an iron baseball bat Alec had when we first found them. When she neared, I swung the bat with all the might I had in me. Her head connected with the bat and made a sickening crack as she crumpled to the floor. I stood over her and slid the ring off of her finger.

"Ta da." I said with a smile and showed him the ring. Except for a couple blood stains on the golden ring, it looked new, even though the two years of the apocalypse. The band was golden and had two diamonds on the side and a big brilliant diamond in the middle.

"Now all we need is some clothes."

"Woah there, Jamie still needs to say yes first before we worry about formal clothes."

"Hey, I also need a new calendar." I told Alec

"Can't you just make one?" he replied

"Well, to make a calendar, one would need paper" I fired.

He sighed, "What about that Michael's up ahead?", I nodded and we walked quickly to the store.

It was an easy raid, hardly anybody in there due to the towns low population. Not one person had thought to raid an art store when walkers were parading around, eating the living. We pocketed and bagged loads of utensils, fake food, papers, and any other crafts or toys we managed to fit in our already stuffed pockets and bags.


	10. Chapter 10

After the two year anniversary of the apocalypse, the small group I had now called my family was at our highest point. We had food, a stable and mobile shelter, clothes for and and all occasions, including the wedding clothes for the boys and I, doctors, medical supplies, supplies, and even had entertainment in books and board games like Monopoly and Chutes and Ladders.

It was Alec who suggested the feast, saying it was our two year I'm-not-dead-or-a-walker-versary and we should celebrate. We all cooked while Dean kept driving our locomotive, and when it came time for dinner, we all grabbed the few plates of food and headed to the cockpit. A look surprise washed over Dean as we all came to the cockpit to celebrate the party and we all ate and reminisced about the days before everything went to hell. It was great, Jackson and Dean ate two servings while those who had 'punked their system had half of a plate of food. At the end of the dinner, after all the plates had been cleared and the food restored, I all headed back to the cockpit just in time to see Alec pull out the rings and ask Jamie to marry him. She was stunned, but her face showed happiness and she started to cry happy tears.

"Yes." she said breathlessly and waited until Alec put the ring on her finger to grab him into a tight embrace where they stood for a while. We all headed back to our rooms, I was in cart Eleven, with Jackson right behind me in Twelve and Jamie and Alec in Twenty behind the doccart. It was a good night and we were glad to have had it.


	11. Chapter 11

Two years passed, thanks to my calendar, before Jamie and Alec's wedding. It wasn't perfect, but Jamie was overjoyed and Alec was unable to stand still.

Jamie and I had found a wedding dress in a Huntsville that hadn't been raided while Jackson, now nine-years-old, and Alec found tuxedos in the same town. I had found a fancy dress in one of the luggages we raided on the first day and wore that; it was a lightened blue with a lighter blue ribbon around the waist. Jamie wore a slim white sleeveless dress that, at the bottom, bursted out in ruffles all tied with a white ribbon and an explosion-looking silver patch held it in place. The men wore a traditional black tuxedo, and Dean was the pastor, wearing a tuxedo; Jackson and I laughed when he first came out of the changing room in Huntsville. It was fun watching them, their eyes were alive and dancing brilliantly while they gazed into their partners eyes. They said their "I do"'s and kissed to seal their deal. We laughed and enjoyed a small feast of canned food to celebrate.

We were told by Jamie and Alec to stay away from Twenty until told so; and we complied.


	12. Chapter 12

Dean stopped her, not in a station because he saw a gold mine. How he saw it, he wouldn't tell, but he stopped the train with a hunger in his eyes right in a clearing where the trees that shielded us was cleared away and gave us a clear view of the highway, studded with rusty old cars and a parking lot filled with shiner cars. Jackson and I stepped out of the Botswana cautiously, hoping no walkers hid within the vehicles; we only saw cars, not the owners were soon upon us. A large group of them, walking towards us slowly and creepily. They were dirty and a few had limps. It wasn't until I heard a cry of joy that I knew this large horde was just a group of survivors.

"People!" one cried.

"Their alive!" said another.

"Their well fed!" said a man with a obvious spray-tan.

"Why, they're just children!" said an elderly woman with graying hair and wore jeans and a grey hoodie with white tennis shoes, her wrinkles stood out. She stepped forward and held out a warm greeting hand., "I'm Edris." she told us

"I'm Elsa, and this is my brother, Jackson." I replied.

"Why, such nice looking children." Edris said sweetly to an elder man beside her, "How have you lived so long in a world like this?". I glanced at Jackson and shook my head.

"Um, I'll be right back." I told the group, "Don't go anywhere." I grabbed Jacksons hand and we bolted behind the thick trees before anyone could follow us to the front of the train.

"Dean! Dean!" I called out, "Dean!"

"What, what?" Alec yelled at us as he poked his head out from behind the glass pane. Curious heads of Jamie and Dean told me that he wasn't alone in there

"The gold mine! The cars Dean saw were people! Survivors like us!" I reported.

"So?" I heard Dean shout as he walked onto the platform surrounding the cockpit.

"So? So can they stay? We could use the numbers on raids and maybe even hit big cities!" Jackson cried to them, his joy at the thought of new people obvious.

I could see Dean's body bend as he sighed. He walked back into the cockpit and consulted with everyone else. When he emerged he told me, "As long as they pull their weight!".

"Thank you Dean!" Jackson cried as he bounced excitedly on his feet, "Come on Elsa! Let's tell them!" he pulled on my hand all the way until we reemerged in front of the group, all scattered at their cars.

"Everybody!" I shouted to the group, "Listen up! I have consulted with our driver and he said that you can come with us-" shouts of joy erupted from the scattered crowd, "-but!" I silenced the crowd, "You do have to pull your weight. That means if we tell you to do something, do it! Do not complain or you will be dropped off."

"Dropped off?" the spray-tan man called, "Wait, you don't expect us to all pack into whatever tiny truck you have do you?"

"Tiny truck?" I scoffed, "We have a train! Complete with 20 carts!"

"The both of them? A train?" said a mom standing by a red van.

Edris walked up to us from her red Honda, "Please tell me what you're saying is true. We can't afford another scam." she said.

"It's not, we swear." spoke up Jackson. I looked at the group, they all had sunken faces that showed from a recent loss.

The old man with paler grey hair standing next to Edris walked up in jeans and a matching grey hoodie, "Now as you can see, we don't like to be tricked; we've lost too much. Now if whatcha y'all are saying is true, we'd love nothing more than to get off the streets."

"Would you like someone to take a tour with us, show you guys what we have?" I suggested. Jonathan nodded, and sent a middle aged woman name April with us for the tour. She followed us as we showed her around the train. The food cart, the clothing cart, the leisure area in Three, the mens living spaces in Four and Five, Six and Seven where the older women slept, younger boy's living space in Eight and Nine, Ten for the younger girls, Eleven through Nineteen for couples, and the doccart. The woman seemed pleased throughout the tour and when we got back to her group before noonish. April reported to Edris and Jonathan all about how we had beds and medicine and food; the elder pair seemed pleased.

"We'd love to live with you. Can you handle 25 people?" April reported to me.

"Absolutely. May I make an announcement?" I asked directed towards Edris. She nodded and I stood atop of the nearest car, which was a red Honda, "Hello everybody," I announced, "Well my name Elsa, and this is my little brother, Jackson." I pointed to my brother standing below me, "In this train, which we call the Botswana, we have rules that everyone above the age of five has to comply with. Number one; you must pull your own weight. Scavenging, raids, cleaning, helping in anyway is allowed, no one can sit around and just get away with it. Number two, do not, and I mean do not, go into room Twenty unless it is an emergency; as you know, resources are limited and our last hospital run almost resulted in our deaths. That is our very own Doctor Jamie and Doctor Alec's room, called the doccart. The doccart is our makeshift hospital, do not misuse it, we only have ten beds in there. Number three, we do have rations! Do not misuse, take, or lie about anything with rations. We all need them very much and they are very hard to come by. Any complaints with the rules, come to me in Eleven." I nodded to April, "Your friend will back me up on this; our carts are all labeled with a yellow number, so I highly doubt you can get lost."

"What about our luggage?" said the Californian woman.

"Grab all pieces you want to bring with you and put them on the tables in One, which will be where you all enter, so you can't miss it." I explained.

"So all of our positions become everyone else's?" complained the spray-tanned man.

"Yes, we will need them for future raids and it makes it easier to live in general so that the rooms you live in aren't cluttered with spare clothes and a world war doesn't start in the train over some stupid shirt. Also your food gets stored in One on a separate table; when everyone is settled in we will have a meeting in One and I will tell everybody where everything goes. We will let you settle into your rooms and choose beds and such. Boys under 18 go to Nine and Eight, girls under 18 go to Ten, women older than 18 go to Seven and Six, and men above 18 to Five and Four. Couples, Come straight with me in my room so we can assign you rooms. Everyone, load up. I want to get outta here before sunset." I told the group. Those by their cars got inside them and I saw their outlines grab everything and put them into the little boxes they had. They quietly scavenged their cars for any items that may have hidden under the seats or mementoes they wouldn't trade for their life. I walked around to check with everybody and give the occasional help. When I weaved through the crowd, I watched them pack with interest; I hadn't seen another living person besides Dean, Jamie, Jackson, or Alec and frankly, I was curious about life outside the train and these people could tell me about the years while I was hidden in a train. I wondered if they knew about the disease and maybe what caused it.

They were people from all walks of life, all from very old to seemingly newborn. I wanted to interact, figure out everything I could, so I walked up to a woman with brown hair who looked about in her thirties. She had little wrinkles on her dirty face; she watched her daughter, who looked around ten pack up everything while she stood watching the horizon for walkers.

"Hello." I said.

"Why hello, Elsa was it?" she replied with a weary smile.

"Yes" I smiled back at her, "Would you like some help?" I pointed to the mass clothes pile being shoved into a small cardboard box.

"No thank you, I promise we will be on the Botswana, was it, and in our rooms before the sun touches the horizon. My name's Rena and this is my little girl Celine.". Celine was just a normal girl who had her mother's features and her mom's chocolate hair. I nodded at her and went back to observing people. As I continued to look through the crowd, I passed a grey mini-van and heard a familiar voice call out. I stopped, not wanting to believe I heard what I did. I passed it off, and started walking, but I didn't get far before I felt a warm hand on my shoulder and was spun to face my past. Miles, the same blonde hair and blue eyes that had once mesmerized me so long ago.

"You're-you're alive." he whispered just loud enough for me to hear. Without hesitation, he wrapped his arms around me; tears were brimming at my eyes and I wrapped my arms around him hesitantly. I laughed and cried at once as I stayed glued to his embrace.

"What about me?" a voice said cockily, Aaron. He still looked the same, the shortened brown hair and matching brown eyes.

"Aaron? Wow, anyone else I know?" I said.

"No." Miles said with sadness in his voice, "We barely got out alive.".

"Yeah, we were in school when Mrs. Anne busted through the door and started biting people. How we got out without a scratch, we don't know." Aaron added, the same energetic voice he always had.

"That's crazy, but I'm glad you two are okay." I told the two. I looked around and saw the people of the group with boxes in hand, waiting to be led to safety.

"Likewise." Miles said to me with a smile while I watched the people.

"I have to go and lead everybody to the train. I was wonderful to see you guys again.". With that, I rushed off and led everyone into the thick trees and to Botswana. As I turned to face the group I saw looks of awe as they glanced up and down her with admiration. As I entered One with a trail of people behind me. As instructed, they put the boxes full of food on the two tables on the left side and the clothes on the rest and walked off to their rooms. I made one final check in the cars for food or other supplies we would need and brought Jackson to round up the stragglers. The sun was almost at the horizon before I heard Jackson yell for me. I ran to where I heard him in the lot and found him standing in front of a white Porsche. The spray-tanned man and the woman with a white t-shirt with California printed across her chest. Jackson stood with his arms crossed along with the woman and the man sitting in the car with his arms crossed stubbornly over his chest holding his possessions to him.

"C'mon Nate! They said sunset, and it's almost time!" she almost screamed.

"What's going on here?" I said as I ran up to them.

Naomi turned to me and breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank God you're here. Nate, my boyfriend doesn't want to leave his stupid car!" she complained.

"Nate, is it?" I looked at the man in the car, "We have to go. I don't want to leave anybody behind and I am not staying here for days waiting on you.".

"I don't care, I can't leave my baby! I bought this with my own dough." he said rudely.

"Nate, please baby. We don't have time for this!" Naomi begged and bent beside her boyfriend.

"No Naomi." he said bluntly and held his arms closer to him. I thought of a plan.

"Alright," I told him with a shrug and turned towards Botswana, "Lets go Naomi."

"What?" she said sharply, puzzled.

"He doesn't want to leave his car, so lets let him stay with it." Nate didn't look up and I turned to her and winked at her. She gave me a look of knowing and played along.

"Okay, he always loved that car anyways." she said in a singsong tune and turned towards the train. We turned to walk away when I heard the rustling of clothes and some cans clinking together. Soon he was right by the blonde woman's side and wrapped an arm around her and, together, we walked back to Botswana.

"I think I need this babe more." he said, squeezing Naomi in his arm. She giggled and we all headed inside.

As we entered the train I directed them in One. I left the two to their own devices, and with Jackson by my side, I headed to the cockpit. Dean was there alone checking everything.

"Dean, we got tape? Coulda sworn Alec and I picked some up at Michaels." I asked him.

"Uh, yea, I think he put it in the drawer in your room." he replied, occupied, "Hey, are we good to go?"

"Yeah, everyone's in, I just need to get the food and clothes put away."

"Good." he pressed a few buttons and the train whirred to life.

I quickly radioed Alec, "Alec, can I send one person at a time to check for bites?And I'll need yours and Jamie's help in sorting the clothes and food." I asked.

"Yeah, sure. It'd be best." I heard his voice say, "And I'll have to ask the missus."

"Alright, I send back the men and tell me when you can sort with me."

I pocketed the radio, grabbed my clipboard from my room pushed the intercom button to speak to the men.

"Hello everybody, if you please, will all men from ages 18 and up come to One immediately." I said into the mic. Fairly soon a mass of men walked into the room.

"Hello gentlemen." I said to them.

"Hello Miss." they replied, almost in sync.

"As you know, I am Elsa. I room in Eleven if you need me, and please don't hesitate to ask me," I gestured to myself, "my brother Jackson," I pointed to my brother, "or Alec and Jamie in Nineteen. Now, if you please, starting with this lovely man right here," I pointed to a middle aged man in a blue tee shirt and faded denim jeans, "What's your name sir?"

"I'm Henry" he told me.

"Please go to Nineteen." I marked him on my clipboard for the first bed.

One-by-one, each man headed to the doccart. No bites were reported from Alec on the men. While each man made the journey, I continued to mark who was where. There was Henry in One, Kyle in Two, Damen in Three, Gabriel in Four, Chris in Five, and Lewis in Six. Each of their names were sitting on the beds in shiny duct tape and dark letters. I moved on to the older ladies, calling them up over the intercom, there was only four and I gave them bed numbers; Mary in One, Jackie in Two, Jane in Three, and Rena in Four. Again, the girls went to the back to be checked on by Jackie. This was a repeated process in Eight, except the boys wanted to play more than be helpful.

"Aw, why can't you check for bites?" Cory asked jokingly.

"Yeah, I'd rather be checked out by a girl, especially her." spoke up John, playing along. Everyone agreed except for Miles and Aaron.

"C'mon you guys, she's just trying to help." rescued Miles.

"Yeah, besides, we got plenty of time to stare at girls when we go on raids." added Aaron.

"Ooh, Aaron likes dead girls!" shouted out Sam.

I laughed, "Cory, is it?" he nodded, "Go the doccart. It's in numerical order, so next would be John, then Sam, then Miles, then Aaron, then Drake, then Brendan, then Jack, then Creig, then Castiel. Got it?" I told them, pointing to each one of them. They nodded and waited for their turns while I wrote where they would be sleeping. Next was the girls in Ten, which was easier. Cassie, May, Abbie, Joe, and Celine all complied wordlessly and I got back to my room before the moon hit the middle of the sky. I flopped onto my bed, tired from the constant headache that plagued me, but I knew that my night was long from over. I had to make the schedules, write down the ration's for each person, make a list of things we would need during our next raid, and keep watch for oncoming hordes. I worked hard into the night and partly in the morning, watching the sunrise for the fifth time in a row. By the time the sun was in the sky, I was done with the schedules and the ration notice. I hurriedly put the ration notice in my hands and started to stand from the bed. I was thankful for the distraction and my OCD for once in my life.

"I'll post these tonight." I told myself.

"Post what?" I heard a voice, it was Aaron.

"Oh, just some schedules for people. But I'll give them a day to rest before they're put to work." I explained

"Oh, fun." he said as he sat down at the foot of my bed; I crossed my legs and sorted out the papers so putting them on the beds would be easier. When I looked up from my shuffling papers, Aaron was still there.

Setting the papers down, I looked up, "Something I can help you with?"

"Yeah, Miles." he replied, his usually playful face was serious.

I was shocked, "W-what?" I stammered out

"Don't get me wrong, we're both glad you're back, but the way you left-it killed him." he said. I sat there, silent and tried to go back to the paper sorting. Aaron didn't let me.

"I know you can hear me. C'mon Elsa." he pleaded.

"Why do you want to bring this back up?" I asked.

"Because I wanna make sure that whatever happened to you two back then isn't repeated. It wasn't fun watching him go through that."

"Go through what?"

"He lost you. And he never got over that. I was told by one of his other friends that, whenever a girl tried to get close to him, he would push them away." he laughed, "Hot girls too."

"I-I thought he was fine. He went on, I could see that before I left."

"Yeah, he was fine. When you were around. He didn't want to let you see he was hurting. And, when you left early, he busted."

"What?"

"Yup. He broke down, he was depressed and even talked about suicide."

"I didn't think I had that kind of an influence over him…"

"You had a hell of a lot more than influence. You had his heart, but he never admitted it.". I looked away, blinking away the forming tears. "I don't know if what he's doing now is putting on a brave face, or he forgot about the past years without you. I honestly don't know, he hasn't told me anything.". I remained silent. "Ya know," he laughed, "In the, I think, third year, he wondered if you were still alive. And he wanted to go out and try to find you, alive or undead. That's part of the reason we were where we were when you guys found us. That and our camp had been raided by the Laws and the elders figured it wouldn't be safe there anymore."

"Really?" I asked quietly.

"Yep. Man, you should have seen his face when you stood on top of the car and called out to the group. It took everything to stop him from running up to you."

I chuckled, "That sounds like him."

"Just be careful around him okay? Bringing up anything from that time could cause something I wouldn't want started up again." Aaron told me as he stood and exited my cart. I remembered the past couple of days before I left Utah to come live with my mother.


	13. Chapter 13

_It was a cold morning on a what I think was a Friday. Clouds covered the already darkened sky. I awoke 6:20. Damn clock I told myself as I groggily started my morning routine. I figured it would be okay if this one day out of the many I wouldn't take a shower. I continued my morning routine and finally, at 8:11, I left for school. The day was normal, class periods with friends, passing periods, lunch. But the only thing out of the ordinary was that I ignored the one person I cared about, Miles. Whenever he walked near me, I would pretend that he was just another person in the vast numbers of the school. It wasn't until the next day that things got bad. I pretended I never knew him; I pretended that all that we had been through together was a forgotten memory. I couldn't see the hurt in his eyes, but I felt like it killed him._

_"Hi" he would text._

_"Who is this?" I would reply_

_"Miles"_

_"I don't know a Miles, I think you have the wrong number. Sorry"_

_"This is Elsa right?"_

_"... Yea. How do you know my name?". This went on for a while and I was dreading the whole charade and having to face him at school. My acting wasn't all that bad, but it wasn't good either and I was scared. I went through the day as normally as I could starting with practice. When it was over, my teammates and I walked to the changing rooms and dressed out for the day. I walked out of the changing room with Hope, going to put my bag in the locker like other day, but leaning on the locker was Aaron and Miles. I quickly filled Hope that I was pretending I had forgotten about him and we walked over to the locker as if nothing was abnormal._

_"Can you please move?" I asked in my polite voice_

_"Elsa, this isn't funny." Aaron told me, his arms crossed._

_I put on my best confused face, "I'm sorry?"_

_"Saying you 'forgot' Miles. That's just rude." he explained._

_"I don't know a Miles, although there was one that texted me this morning." I told him_

_"Do you know me?" Aaron asked, standing and looking at me._

_"No." I told him, pretending that I didn't know him either._

_"I'm gonna go and drop of my backpack at class." Hope told me. I gave a nod of acknowledgment and turned back to the two._

_"Can I just put my bag in the locker?" I asked, forcing my voice to go small and helpless._

_"Not until you can admit you know who we are and that you were joking."_

_"Okay, I know you two." I said, my voice staying tiny and fragile._

_"Really? What's our names?" Aaron asked._

_I pretended to look a bit frightened, "Um, you're Henry," I said to Aaron, "and you're… Jake?"_

_Miles looked shocked, "Maybe she really doesn't remember us. But thats a hell of a lot of time forgotten." he told Aaron_

_"Time forgotten? Do I know you two?" I asked without acknowledgment. I tried to slide my bag into the locker so I could leave. I got my bag into the locker, but I didn't get to leave. Miles grabbed my arm and pulled me back."_

_"Let me go!" I shouted. All heads were turned towards us in a second. I looked around and pulled my arm off of Miles' grasp, "Please, leave me alone." I walked off, heading to Hope who was standing outside the door frame without her backpack. Throughout the day, Aaron or Miles' other friends would walk up to me whenever they could, asking if I remembered; which I would always say no or remembered what. This went on all the way until the end of the year; which was the year I moved in with mom. I left, my team, my school, my friends, and all I had ever cared about; an early. When the year ended and January 1st popped up, I was in Tennessee with my mother._

As I layed in my bed, my mind raced through the memory. I remember always trying to undo the wrong I had done to Miles, words that were never said, glances never exchanged, embraces never given; I hated myself everyday after I left.


	14. Chapter 14

It was well past noon when I emerged from my room and walked to One where all the adults were nicely packed into the small booths given to us by the train. They ate the little rations they got for the day. I was glad everyone was complying to the rules and not stuffing themselves with newfound food. I strolled up to the front for One and looked around. Everywhere, faced were either staring at me or eating the tiny portion of food.

I cleared my throat, "Good morning everyone."

"Good morning." they all replied

"I would like to thank you for not eating your weight in our food and complying with the sign.

"Where did you get the paper?" asked Rena.

"Doctor Alec and I raided a Michaels before him and Jamie got married." I told her, "Would you like me to give you some?"

"Yes please, it's been a while, but I was a great artist."

"Oh, then I'll see to it that a couple pieces of paper and utensils are on your bed before nightfall." I told her, "But, now, everybody. I would like to discuss what's going to happen tomorrow. Tomorrow, we stop into a small city with, say, roughly 12,000 people once known as the local population. There was rumors of a Costco that was secured but they fell, a once great survivor group."

"How do you know all this?" asked Nate.

"We have a radio up in the cockpit with Dean, I was talking to a child in the Costco a couple of minutes before they got crushed.

"What happened to them?" asked Naomi curiously.

"Sadly, one person took their eyes off a child for one second and the wine bottles came crashing down. Walkers tried to get in and bit one person, turned him into one of them and he terrorized the group with ten other walkers. The other defensed held but, if we get inside, we have to deal with 30 walkers as quietly as we can."

"That's terrible. How about the little girl?"

"I think she's still alive, I have not heard from her, but she said she was hiding on the highest shelf she could find. She hasn't radioed me because I told her to keep quiet. Can we do this? Get this girl and have one hell of a raid?"

"I'm in."

"Me too."

"Yeah, lets save this girl and get some food!" Everyone cheered.

"Alright, we will pull into the station tomorrow. I would appreciate if you guys would go to Two before the raid to pick out something lightweight, easy to move in, and has lots of pockets. But, for now, have a free day today."  
"Miss?" asked Damen.

"Yes Damen?"

"Will we ever see the leader of all this?"

"All this?"

"Yeah, the train, the beds, the schedules. Will we ever meet the genius who saved us all?"

"You've already met the leader," spoke up Alec, as he walked in from Two holding a cup of coffee from the doccart.

"We have?" they all asked.

"Yep," he took a sip of his coffee, "Right there." he pointed towards me with his mug.

"What?" cried out Henry

"She's just a child!" said Kyle

"No," Jamie said, appearing from behind Alec, "she's a savior. She saved Alec and I, she scouted the Botswana when she first found it, she helped with all the raids, she led us away from a walker horde, she's amazing."

"And she's immune." added Alec.

"You're immune from the bites? How?" asked Jackie.

"A long and painful process that no one is repeating. It's too dangerous now." I said.

"You wanna know why Dean put you in Eleven Elsa?" Alec asked me, "Because he knew that, if we ever found survivors, you would want them to stay and so they needed the leader somewhere where they can run to her. He told me that himself. You're a leader Elsa, smart, fast, and very organized.". I stood a little taller. I had to lead these people to a safer place, a place where we could stay away from walkers, not put the little ones in danger, and live out our lives.


	15. Chapter 15

I went to visit Miles, he was all alone in Eight, sitting on his bed and looking over a piece of paper; normal lined paper that's rare to come by.

"Hi." I said softly, leaning on the door.

He looked up and smiled, "Hey." he scooted over, beckoning me to sit beside him. I hesitantly walked over to the bed and sat at the foot. Miles gave me a puzzled look and scooted closer to me.

"It's great that you are alive," he started, "I was just about to go looking for you on my own before we were raided."

"I was told." I told him, not looking up.

"What's wrong." he asked.

"It's nothing."

"It sure looks like nothing."

"It is." I looked up as his gaze met mine. My eyes darted back to the bed. We sat in silence except for the wind blowing past the window

"Why did you leave the way you did?" he asked after minutes of silence.

"What?"

"The way you left, it hurt. Bad."  
"I didn't mean for it to be painful."

"Then how did you mean it? Saying you didn't remember all of those memories, all the things we did." he reached for my hand. The minute we touched, I drew back. He sat there, frozen but returned to his position.

"Did you really forget?"

"I tried…"

"Why?"

"Because of the pain."

"What?"

"The pain of me realizing, even though we would spend hours talking, I didn't know you. You were a stranger, and in some aspect, you still are."

"You used that magic stuff, didn't you?". I said nothing. "You did. But why?"

"I was desperate for help, help that wouldn't betray me like past 'friends' had. Help that wouldn't go telling people about my problems."

"I still cared!"

"I didn't want to care! I didn't want love; I had made that promise to myself." He sat there, shocked at my answer. I felt tears coming on and ran off to my room. I hated this feeling; the feeling that, even though how hard I try, my feelings always had control. Most of all I hated crying, it made me feel weak, and weakness was not something a person who survived flesh-craving people for four years while taking care of a younger brother does, much less a leader of 30 other people who depend on her for guidance. But still she sat there, begging her gods to make the pain stop once again with tears streaming down her face. Just then, the familiar shoop of the door opening rang through her ears and in strolled Jackson with Aaron.

I quickly wiped away my tears and made it seem as if I was fine. Jackson immediately walked up to me and hugged me,

"It's okay sis. Please don't cry."

"What? Me crying? When have you ever heard of that?" I smiled at Jackson. Aaron sat beside me,

"I told you, you shouldn't have brought it up."

"Shut up, I didn't."

"You didn't?"

"No." I told him, "Jackson, how about you go check on the children?" he nodded and walked out of Eleven.

"He brought it up." I told Aaron as soon as Jackson left.

"I figured that much. That's so… unlike him nowadays."

"I wouldn't know what he's like." I pointed out.

"Maybe I should go talk to him." Aaron said and left, leaving me alone. I knew I had to do something to get my mind off of my troubling thoughts.

In the doccart, Jamie sat in her little desk, reading a book we had found in the Michaels raid. She looked up from her book and smiled politely at me.

"Hey Elsa, what's wrong?" Jamie asked, a usual question for a receptionist of a doctor.

"Nothing is wrong, I just figured I would check on you guys, I didn't see you head back here."

"Oh, well we walked back with you, but you stopped at Eight while we kept on."

"Oh, I guess I wasn't paying attention."

"That's a bad trait to have during a zombie epidemic."  
"Yeah, I know."

Jamie scrutinized me, "How's your system?" she asked

"It's fine, not giving me any trouble besides when I work out."

"That's normal, it was made to move, but not extensively. Don't work to hard, okay?"

"I stop whenever it hurts anyways."

"Okay good.". She was obviously avoiding something; she wanted me to ask like she normally does.

"Is there something bothering you?" I asked

"I don't know. Is there anything bothering you?" she continued with her usual tactic.

"Possibly." I played

"Is it something worth talking about."

"Not usually, unless you like talking about boys."

"Seeing as how all I hear are walkers and train noises, a talk about boys seems like a familiar thing I miss." I laughed and sat at the chairs across from her as she bookmarked her place in the book, "What's going on?"

"Oh you know, a past life catching up to me."

"Thats' never fun."

"I know."

"Wanna talk about it?"

"Not really, I was just going to talk to the little ones."

"What's our youngest? I could possibly run a daycare in Three."

"You don't have to."

"What else am I supposed to do, Alec and I don't have anything to stock, no patients to see, I can't see why not."

"I guess theres no harm in trying. I'll go talk to the moms about setting up a daycare."

"What's our youngest?"

"Um, I think it's Sam, he's… three...?"

"Well thats not bad, I'm terrible with newborns." she laughed out. "

"I'm gonna go set it up with the mothers."

"Thanks, also, try and get everyones name, and a polaroid camera in our next raid if you please.

"You're not coming?"

"I'm not feeling too well, I've been throwing up all morning."

"Doesn't that mean-?"

"I don't know, and I'm hoping not."

"Why? It seems like the dream."

"Yeah, if your dream is to bring a child into a world full of flesh eating creatures, then yeah, living the dream."

"If you are, it'll be okay."

"Sure. Go and check for daycare."

"...Okay." I walked out of the doccart and headed to the front, Jackie, Rena, Mary, and Jane were sitting down at one table sipping the last of their rationed coffee and chatting about typical things. Besides the dark scenery and obviously starving people, you would never guess at first glance that outside, walkers were tearing apart anything that once breathed or themselves. Rena saw me as soon as I stepped into the cart

"Hello Boss." she said, stopping the conversation.

"Hi ladies." I said, "Um, so Jamie and I were talking, and we were thinking of starting a daycare in Three, would you guys want to do that?"

"Yeah sure, sounds like a good idea." agreed Mary.

"There isn't pay is there?" asked Jackie.

I laughed, "I don't think I could buy things nowadays.". The ladies laughed at my joke.

"I'll happily comply then." said Jackie. After I had gotten agreements from all three women, I headed back to the doccart to find Jamie in the exact place I had left her in.

"They all agreed." I reported to Jamie.

She nodded, "Good good. Now we just need to make the room."

We got to work, taking away the small petty chairs that littered the floor. How we didn't think of cleaning Three for any storage reasons, I'll never remembered. But in Three, blood splatters thicker than all the carts we had cleaned were on the carpeted floor. Obviously, some large battle happened here, most likely, whatever had caused all the passengers to turn and be shoveled back to the twenty-first cart when we first discovered the train. Blood was splattered on the walls, on the floor, and a large puddle of brown sat on the floor; all aspects of a gruesome fight. This was in absolutely no condition to be shown to 20 year olds, much less 3 year olds. We used the bleach we had to use to clean the metal when my system was metalized; it got out some of the stains, but it was obvious that something had been here. After we had cleaned the room as good as we could, we thought about what would be needed to keep little children entertained.

"Toys." stated Jamie.

"Yeah, no joke." I told her. We both laughed and figured out different things. We knew that there was no such thing as milk in this day and age, and if there was the off chance there was one carton left, it would be past spoiled. Also we knew nothing with sound, if there was a raid, we couldn't risk Sam or May playing with a rattler that could set the hordes of walkers towards the train and putting everyone in danger. Something simple, yet fun.


	16. Chapter 16

**Just a note, this is a long chapter**

**~Lucid3762**

* * *

We stopped at the small town I was talking about around noon of the next day and assembled in Three.

"Okay group, I've figured out who we need on this mission. Now, according to the rumor, there were 50 people in the Costco. That means we may need all of us."

"But the little ones!" cried out Jackie.

"We're not taking the little ones," I told her, "Jamie will look after them in here like we promised. But we will need the following. If your name is called, head to Two."

"Nate, Naomi, Henry, Damen, Gabriel, Mary, Jackie, Jane, Rena, Cory, Miles, Aaron, Jack, Cassie, Abbie, Joe, Jackson, Alec, and I." I called out, clearly and slowly, "Now the rest of you adults, go with Dean here," I pointed to Dean, "and Jamie, keep the little ones here.". Jamie nodded and took Sam, May, Celine, Creig, Castiel, Drake, and John to one of the corners of the room where a chair sat with The Cow Jumped Over The Moon on it. I went into Two and saw everybody switching from their warm clothes to the black shirts and cargo pants. I was glad everyone didn't mind changing with random strangers in the room, but there was still a little uncomfortable air. I changed out into my black long sleeve shirt and the only black cargo pants in my size.

"Is everybody ready?" I asked. A bunch of dark clothed people turned to face me and gave me a smile to signal they were ready, "Then lets go.". They cleared a path and I walked to the front of the group.

"Last checks, everyone has nothing jingly that could cause any noise do they? This is the biggest raid with the most danger. I trust all of you to not blow our cover. So check, no jewelry, no chains, nothing that can make a sound when we are walking."

"Nate, take it off." I heard Naomi try to whisper.

"No." he told her firmly.

"Nate," I called out, "Is there something you would like to share?"

"Nope." he said smugly

"Oh for Gods sake Nate! Take off that damn chain! None of your friends are here to call you badass for having that chain on!" Naomi screamed.

"Damn right none of my friends are here! Because of you, they all died!" he fired back.

"It wasn't my fault! You had that stupid chain on and when we tried to sneak out of the house, the horde attacked us!" Naomi screamed, tears forming in her eyes.

"Hey!" I yelled at the two. They stopped arguing and looked at me, "Now listen here Nate, if you are wearing a chain, and it brings the horde on us, I'm leaving you. You have no right to yell and blame Naomi for something she most likely didn't do. If I have to search you I will, and if I find something, you better hope I don't leave you here on the tracks and let you fend for yourself."

"This isn't your wisest choice 'Boss'." he threatened.

"I don't make wise choices, I make choices that keep us alive." I replied coldly. His eyes narrowed, but he reached into his pocket and brought out a silver chain on a wallet and dropped it in my hands.

"It'll be in your room if you come back." I told him and handed it to Jack, "Jack, it was my mistake to think that you should be here. So if you please, take Jackson and yourself and go to Three."

"I'm not leaving you." Jackson complained.

"You have no choice little bro." I said softly.

"Promise you'll come back." he made me swear.

"I promise on everything I believe in." I promised. He grabbed onto me and we sat on the ground hugging, "I'm sorry you had to see that Jackson."

"Don't be sorry Elsa." he told me. Jackson looked at Jack and they walked to Three.

"Lets go." I told the group and we headed out. My last glimpse of the Botswana was Jackson staring out the window and the elders on top of her as scouts.

My group wandered around the town, raiding pharmacies, small stores, and the occasional house whenever we could. A couple of the younger people held onto those supplies, we were saving our muscle for when we needed it. It finally appeared to us, just before sundown, Costco; the beautiful red letters stood out to us like a beacon.

"Stay focused and strong, god knows what hells been in there for four years." I told the group before we looked for an entrance.

"Anything your 'rumor' tells us about getting inside?" asked Nate.

"As a matter of fact, yes. It's said that there was a hole able for one person to crawl in and out of whenever they wanted to see if help was coming. It should be riiiiight there!" I said pointing to a small tunnel. We quietly walked up to it.

"This is unnatural." I heard Henry say.

"Why do you say that?" I asked

"Where are the walkers? If this place was inhabited, wouldn't there be a large horde trying to get in." he explained

"Yeah, in fact, we haven't seen any walkers this entire trip." piped up Miles.

"So where are they?" Aaron asked.

"They can't be inside. The passage is barred." I said.

"What?" said Rena. We all looked, barring the tiny hole were four thick silver poles.

"How are we going to get in?" cried Mary.

"Calm down, it might just be a diversion they used." I calmed my people.

"Okay then tough girl," Nate said to me in a snobby manner, coming up to the front of the group, "if you believe its a diversion, then you open it."

"Alright fine I will." I challenged. I gripped the two poles in the middle and immediately knew what they were.

"Guys," I said excitingly, "They're just bread painted with edible silver!"

"What?" I heard behind me.

"Really?" called another

"Yes! Now once we're in, nobody make a sound." I broke off the four metallic-looking pieces of food and passed them to the group where they were quickly devoured, paint and all.

"Do you want some?" offered Cory

"No thanks, you boys and girls have them." I told him. I watched the group as the cookies were passed as if it was Thanksgiving; it made me smile. Aaron and Miles walked up to me, cookie crumbs still present in their hands.

"So now what?" Aaron asked, sitting down beside me.

"We go in, one at a time, I'll go last." I told him.

"What about outside walkers?" asked Miles as he too sat on the other side of me.

"I'll think of something when we get inside, I'm hoping any of those outsiders don't show their faces like they have." I answered.

"Where are they anyways?" piped up Aaron

"I don't know." I replied, looking for any signs of life besides the cookie party happening not to far away.

"What if, they're allergic to the sun, like in those Enemy books you loved so much." Miles suggested.

"I'm surprised you remembered my favorite book."

"I've always remembered."

"And he read it too, like the little nerd he is.". We all laughed heartily together and I finally stood up to address the dying party.

"Is everyone done and ready to steal some food?" I asked them.

"Yeah!" they all cheered.

"Alrighty then! Now I want one at a time, men and women with weapons first, then the younger ones, I'll be in right behind you guys. Now lets move!" I told them. Henry went first with his Medusa revolver he had on him before the apocalypse, followed by Jackie with a pistol and soon it was my turn.

The tunnel was narrow and uncomfortable. Poles stuck out from where once water flowed from probable plumbing or the drinks. Whatever use they were for, they were annoying by sticking out and jabbing at us with its uneven cutting. Once inside the Costco, old memories of coming here with my father and Jackson flooded back into my mind; I pushed them back, hoping not to cry in front of the group. I looked around for something small that could cover the exit, but be moved for an escape; I found it in a small wooden plank that was split in half. Quickly, I attached near the hole and re-entered the large store. Already, two walkers had appeared and was easily taken out by the duo team of Damen and Henry with some iron baseball bats they had from the children. As I passed, I patted the two on the back and took lead.

"Now, everyone split into groups of two so we can rummage the store faster. Everyone meet back here and scream if you need help, we'll arrive faster than walkers." I ordered everyone. Soon we had two mini armies and set off, my group of seven out of the seventeen we had started with. I had Henry, Damen, Gabriel, Rena, Miles, Aaron, and Cassie; we took the left side that had boxes upon boxes of luxury items. Toilet paper, air fresheners, toothbrushes, toothpaste, cleaners, etc. as far as the shelves could go. Yes, we ran into a few walkers that were quickly and quietly taken care of by Damen. We all grabbed the essential and light things that might make living just a little bit easier like the air fresheners, some perfume, makeup, toilet paper, new bedsheets, dry shampoo, Rena even got a couple of seeds to grow carrots and potatoes and other foods we could eat. Never did I think that those very few things might aid in saving our lives later on.

We heard the scream followed by a gunshot after I had grabbed a large jar of jelly beans. It was a girls, Cassie's probably, but I knew that whatever was dormant here, was about to wake up and rein hell upon us. I slipped the jar into my backpack and darted with the rest to where we heard the scream. It was Cassy, she was on the floor with a bleeding hole in her arm and a walker right beside her with a round hole in its head.

"Cassy!" cried Aaron and flopped himself besides his sister; tears were streaming down his face. Cassy looked at him, tears falling down also

"A-Aaron." she choked out. "I-I-I'm sorry. You t-too Elsa."

"Why do you say that?" I asked her, trying not to cry at a girl I'd had never gotten to know, a beautiful girl at that, apologizing to me.

"I-I-I was care-careless and-and now, the h-horde is c-c-coming." she whispered.

"Don't apologize to me. You're the bravest of us all." I told her, giving her pailing hand a quick squeeze. She gave a quick smile to me and looked back at her brother.

"I-I-I-I love you Aaron. B-b-be good." she told him and died at the unfair age of 17, her brown curly hair covered her white face.

"No!" Aaron screamed, the tears flowing like a waterfall, "Come back! Don't you dare leave me like this!"

"Aaron, we have to get in a better spot. The walkers will be on us." I told him softly.

"No, leave me here with her." he said, cradling his sister in his arms. I looked at Miles, giving him a do-something-look.

"Aaron, come on. You have to live to avenge her death." Miles told his friend stubbornly, "Don't make us drag you!"

"No, leave me." he said. I sighed and grabbed onto Aarons collar and started dragging him away from Cassy's reanimating body. Loud cries of protest called out through Aaron as he was dragged away and forced into the arms of Henry, who carried the skinny boy up the shelves. I climbed up last after making sure everyone was up; I barely made it. Right as I started climbing, I saw what we were up against.

The rumor of this place hadn't been false, but it hadn't told the whole truth either. Instead of thirty, there must have been three hundred! At first, I though the floor was moving, but then I realized that it was just the mass horde that had been once locked away; but now that the lock was withered, and the new hope of fresh meat had brought on a frenzy to clump the floor. The door must have been open and a few just wandered out, I thought to myself. My thoughts were broken, however, by the sound of the sixteen people panicking and crying.

"Stay calm everybody!" I yelled at my panicking group.

"Why should we? We're dead meat anyways!" Nate yelled back.

"Shut up Nate! You're not helping!" I told him. The people eventually calmed down.

"Listen, we just need to get rid of them." I suggested.

"But there's hundreds of them!" Henry reported

"Yes, but guess what, we have something they don't."

"And whats that?" Jackie asked

"Weapons and a straight shot. If we fire enough, we should be okay and be able to take the rest out by hand." I told them. The few that had guns nodded and started firing carefully into the horde.

Bang, headshot. Bang, headshot. Bang, headshot. This went on for a long time but it seemed to be taking its toll. I those who weren't experienced with a gun waited and took stock of our supplies while those who knew traded out with guns or until that gun ran out of ammo. The moment all the guns were out of ammo, we weren't that desperate to go down and start bashing in heads.

"How many are left?" I asked.

"Well, at least a hundred." reported Henry.

"Damn." I said aloud, "We're not crazy enough to do that are we?"

"Maybe if we had a chainsaw." joked Jackie.

I thought and thought, "There was a chainsaw" I recollected.

"There was?" asked Joe. I had never heard her speak before, she was always so quiet and gave that sweet appearance with her blond hair and blue eyes.

"Yes, why do you ask?" I turned to her.

"Well I know how to operate a chainsaw…"

"But my biggest fear is that you won't kill."

"Don't worry about that." spoke up Rena, "she saved John and my life by taking out three walkers. She's got guts." she stood and added, "I'll proudly stand beside you.". Joe nodded at her and looked back at me.

"If you go down there, you're not alone." I told her with a smile.

She smiled back at me, "So then, how are we gonna get to it?"

"It's on the other side." I reported to her, and turned towards the edge of the shelf.

"Crap." I heard her mumble, "These shelves are too big to jump across."

"What around the back?" Cory asked, joining in our conversation, "I just came from the other side of the shelf, there's hardly anything back there but food.". I didn't know what to do, it was all really risky for something that may not work. But thats when things looked up.

Movement on the other side of the room, also upon the shelves. At first, I couldn't determine whether whomever it was lived or re-lived.

"Hey!" I yelled, cupping my hands around my mouth. The figure turned around and faced us, I still couldn't tell until she yelled back at us,

"Hello!" she called back, "I must say, you have one hell of a crowd!"

I laughed at her small humor, luckily, the walkers were more focused on the massive group of us then the small girl on the other side of the room.

"Hey, over on the, I think, fifth from the back's shelf, there were chainsaws! If you could, could you grab one and possibly plow through?"

"Are you crazy?! I don't even know how to work one of those crazy killing machines!"

"We have someone who knows! Please! We'll die!" I pleaded

Silence. "Send someone over to me!" she called eventually.

I turned to Joe, "You and I will go."

"I'm coming too." Miles said.

"No, stay here and take care of Aaron. I think he needs his friend more than anything right now." I told him. Miles complied and walked over to the still distraught Aaron.

"Hey buddy," I said to him. He was a mess, his eyes were bloodshot and he looked to be in a trance, "Joe and I are gonna get us out of here. I'm gonna need you to pull yourself together before we get out of here." I stood to the rest of the group, "Now listen here. The minute you hear the roar of chainsaws, I want everything you unpacked back in your bags and be prepared for a really quick raid, unless it's night, then we'll have an overnight stay. Now-" static cut me off. My walkie talkie, only now had I realized that I had brought it! I pulled it out of the bottom of my bag

"Hello?" I heard Dean's voice.

"Dean? Oh my god! You don't know how good it is to hear your voice" I spoke into the little radio.

"For the love of god Elsa! Keep your radio on the channel we set! It's been a day since we had word from you. " Dean scolded me.

"I'm sorry Dean, we entered the store before dusk and, well, we had a fatality." I reported solemnly.

"A fatality?" he buzzed, "Who?"

"The young girl with the curly brown hair. Her name was Cassy, I'd like to try and make a headstone for her when we get back"

"Um, about that…"

"What?"

"Well, it has been a day, almost two, Elsa. We didn't hear any word from you and we kinda expected the worst… We're gone Elsa… We left around dusk tonight."

"Excuse me?"

"We're gone, Durbanville is hours behind us. I'm sorry…."


	17. Chapter 17

"Durbanville is hours behind us. I'm sorry…." he told me

I couldn't even think, all I said was: "Let me talk to Jackson. Now."

"You'll have to give me a minute, he's been in his room ever since we left."

"Shut up and grab him now Dean."

There was a little silence followed by the voice of an angel, "Hello?" I heard Jacksons sullen voice say.

"Jackson." I choked out

I heard the enthusiasm rise in his voice, "Elsa! You're alive! Dean! We have to go back!". Silence, "What do you mean we can't go back? This rust bucket must have a reverse!"

"Jackson. Now is not the time to argue with Dean about us. We're fine. Go and gather everyone in One for me if you please." the radio went silent for a minute or two as I gathered my group around the walkie talkie.

"Okay." I finally heard Jackson say.

"Hi everybody. Yes, we are all alive minus one. I have gathered everyone I could so we could honor Cassidy McLovin and her bravery in being in this dangerous raid, her brother, Aaron McLovin is here too. Jamie, Alec is still alive."

"Hey baby." Alec spoke to the radio.

"Hi love, I have some important news." we heard Jamie's happy cries say, "Alec, you're gonna be a father.". We all clapped and said our congratulations to the two. The look on Alec's face was priceless; it was a mixture of pure joy and surprise.

"I-I can't wait Jamie. I love you so much."

"I love you too Alec."

"Too all the children who can understand me, your mommies are here and we are all well. We will meet up with you guys as soon as we can. We wish you luck, and we will see you hopefully soon." I said, "Goodbye. Say goodbye everyone."

"Goodbye," everyone said in unison.

"Goodbye." we heard from the other end. I turned the radio off and put it back into the backpack.

"Now that we have the motivation," I looked at Joe, "Lets go kick some walker butt.". Joe smiled at me and we headed back to the shelf. I was stopped by an arm, Miles' arm.

"Miles, we don't have time to argue about going or not, we have a train to catch." I said.

"I know," he said and he leaned in and put his lips on mine. At first I was startled, but I eventually melted into it and wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him closer. I felt his arms gripping my back close to him and we stood together for a little while, our foreheads together.

"You better come back to me now." he whispered. I smiled and gave him a quick peck on the lips.

"You betcha." I said and slowly started to descend the tall shelved with Joe.

Our feet hit the concrete floor with a soft pat that attracted no noise. Most of the horde was up in front of the shelves, but we still kept cautious and tried to stay out of site whenever we could. One shelf, two shelves, three shelves, the back of Costco, and our riskiest part besides the mass walker death soon to be upon us. I waved largely at our group and tried to tell them to make noise. They caught on and soon enough, people started talking and gossiping like valley girls. This got the walkers attention and their groans and vain grasps gave Joe and I enought time to dart to the other side of the store without being detected. Slowly and carefully we stalked down each aisle, checking for walkers before we sneaked to the next shelf. Joe pointed upwards and we finally saw the girl on the otherside. She was young, at least eight, her hair in thick curly waves and blue, almost oceanic eyes shone at us. Joe went first, ascending the shelf carefully; I went next, ascending skillfully and caught up to Joe, which we finished together. The little girl looked at us.

"Hi." she said, as if there wasn't a care in the world.

"Hello. Ready to help?" I asked. The girl giggled and nodded, only did I realize the horror as she turned her back to us. All down her beautiful dress was blood splatters, and now that I saw those on her dress, I realized that the brown marks on the front were also blood now dried. We hit the floor quietly and darted to the chainsaws.

They weren't in their cases, but they didn't look used at all. The orange hilt glimmered as if it was brand new. Joe wrapped her fingers around the handle with a twinkle in her eyes.

"This brings back memories." she said.

"You have no idea," said the little girl. I grabbed one, and gave another to the little girl.

"Ladies," I told them, "Rev your engines.". We pulled the levers and, with a roar, the chainsaws roared. Joe, the little girl, and I stood our ground as the horde of walkers inched closer to us. I saw the group slowly climb down the rails and those who had weapons ran towards the horde and started beating them from behind one at a time. Thats when we started, hacking at walker heads, severing limbs, chopping them down. I was covered in walker blood and guts, my once beautiful black shirt now soaked and bits of people on them. It was around the middle that we lost the little girl, I didn't even know her name yet the walkers didn't care. One on the ground grabbed onto her dress and caused her to fall upon the floor; they closed in, her scream rang through the store. I hacked away all of the walkers, but it was too late, she was bloody and dead. With a sigh, I continued our fight.

We finally reached our people, all the walkers dead and littering the floor like a battleground. Blood was all over my face and clothes and staining my hair.

"Joe, you good?" I asked, turning around.

"No…" she said. On her arm was a bite from an adult; blood seeped out of her arm wherever the teeth marks were present, "It was nice working with you Elsa." She grabbed my gun and shot herself. Three people dead in a day, this was not working for me, I cried and fell to the floor. Miles came up behind me, and despite the blood, cradled me in his arms.

"C'mon, we have to get back to Jackson and the others." he soothed and helped me up.

"Alright everyone. Grab as much food and weapons and you can carry. Don't worry about weight, we're just gonna have to deal with the loss of two people." I ordered them. The split off and started grabbing non-perishable foods; stuffed pockets and bulging backpack greeted me when we all gathered at the entrance. For the last time before we went outside, I turned on the radio.

"Dean, we're leaving the store, please try and stay at a train station for as long as you can." I radioed

"Will do Elsa, meet you soon." he said back

"See ya.". I turned off the radio and stuffed it in my barely able pockets, "Lets roll." We left and headed back into the world, searching for our long-lost train.


	18. Chapter 18

It was almost a month later according to a calendar I had made and kept on me, still searching for our train. We stayed on the train tracks, stopping for food, water, or the occasional walker horde. I never realized that our train had not attracted walkers like in The Walking Dead video game I loved so much. But, on this unlucky night, we had to stop. Henry was the eldest at 49 and his walking had slowed us down quite a bit.

We parked ourselves on the side of train tracks, out of site in the thick overgrown bushes. Henry started the campfire, saying he was sorry he was slowing us down and keeping us from the train the entire time. The fire was warm and delightful, yet it was risky and I wasn't thinking. We attracted the horde from the town across the thickly dense trees without realizing it. Me, being foolish and blinded by my longing for the train, didn't think of setting up a defense for the night and, soon, we had walkers upon us.

I couldn't recall much from the battle, just that we fought of a hundred or more, we lost four people, and we had to retreat. The only lucky part was that we kept the food in the bags and in our pockets instead of laying them out so we had food and supplies. As we ran off, counted our people. Alec, check. Miles, check. Aaron, crumbled, but check. Gabriel and Damen, holding strong, check. Abbie, check. Jane, check. Nate and Naomi, check. Jackie, check. I looked back just in time to see Mary get mauled by walkers and Rena trying to help but got mauled by the same group of walkers. Cory, running for his life, failed to notice the walker in front of him and ran straight into it's clutches where he was held down and bitten in the neck. He fell down right beside the already fallen Henry. I ran after my group, and in half an hour, the fire we had once seen was gone and we were alone in the darkness.

"Is everyone okay?" I asked once daylight broke.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I heard Nate and Naomi say.

"We're all okayish." said Miles.

"What 'bout you boss?" Alec asked

"My arm hurts a bit." I replied.

"Lemme see." he said and rolled up my sleeve. On my forearm was a bite I didn't remember getting. There was a little blood, but nothing gushing out.

"Oh my god!" cried Abbie, "We have to do something about it." she gripped the sledgehammer tighter and stepped towards me. I started taking steps back,  
"Abbie, stop, please." I pleaded with her. She still kept coming at me.

Miles stepped in front of me, "Stop." he said firmly

"Come on Miles! Its her, or us. Let me just get it over with." Abbie cried. Miles only stood his ground, "Fine then, if I have to get around you, I will." she ran towards me, sledgehammer raised. She brought it down, but it was stopped by Alec.

"Elsa cannot be infected, it's neurologically impossible." he told her and ripped the weapon from her grasp.

"W-what?" she sputtered.

"My system…" I whispered.

Alec pointed at me, "That's right, your system makes sure the virus doesn't spread to your heart and brain. It'll leave a hell of a scar, but you'll be fine.". I completely forgot about it. Abbie looked stunned, "Then why don't we all have this?"

"That technology is long gone," Alec told them, "It would take another hundred years to get anything like that again and in such a large amount. She'll be fine, we'll all be fine." he said, looking at me lastly.

Our treks for the went on for eight months, each site of a train station giving us false hope. I radioed frequently and asked about the well being of everyone. When we finally reached one train station where a beautiful sight beheld us; our sleek grey train. Some cried, some thanked God, me? I ran up to that thing and pounded on the door. It slid open and I saw the face of an angel; my little brother Jackson.

"Elsa!" he cried and lept into my arms. My tears mixed into his hair as I held him close. Alec walked up behind us just as Jamie stepped out wearing a purple long sleeve shirt that fit her loose enough to see her stomach clearly. It was large, like she had swallowed a moon. She cried, Alec cried and they hugged and kissed. They didn't dare let go, fearing that they would lose the other yet again. Everyone else stepped aboard the platform as the little children poured out of the train and to their mothers. Celine and John looked around for their mothers; I walked up to them.

"Where's mommy?" Celine asked me.

"I want to see my mommy!" cried John.

"I know, but both of your mommies were very brave women, they sacrificed themselves to save the others." I addressed the whole group, "We lost too many people in that trek and I'm sorry. Sisters, mothers, and sons were lost due to my blind stupidity."

"Your 'blind stupidity' saved us more than once." Alec spoke up.

"Although I don't have Cory, without you, nobody else would be here to hug their loved ones." Jackie comforted me.

"Yeah, and Cassy's death wasn't your fault either Elsa." Aaron told me, "We all knew how equally dangerous it was. But you saved us.". I looked around at everyone, some would never see those they loved again, but they didn't think it was my fault.

Once everyone was on Botswana, we left the station. I sat alone in my room staring at the healing wound on my forearm; I still felt fine, nothing odd and no cravings for flesh, but I worried about me turning and attacking Jackson or Miles or Aaron. I would never forgive myself, alive or undead, if I had killed those I cared most about. In the middle of my thoughts, I failed to hear nor notice Miles entering my room; it was only when he sat down on the bed and waved his hand in between my line of vision to my arm did I realize someone was there.

I looked up and smiled, "Hey."

"Hi." he said, "How ya feeling?"

"Oh, um, I'm okay. Hows everyone?" I asked.

"They're okay." he put his fists in the curve of his hip, "Glad that everyone is home and safe. Are you sure you're okay? It doesn't look good."

"I said I was fine. Is everyone else okay?"

"For the love of God Elsa, think about yourself for two seconds."

"I don't want to think about myself. 'The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.'" I quoted.

"Well, to some people, you are the many." he said softly, almost to himself. I could feel my cheeks reddening. I looked down at my hands, trying to get my mind off this subject.

"I was bit… When we were out searching for you guys. We don't know how long it takes to become one of them." I gestured to outside the window, "It could be days, weeks, or years and I would never know."

"How long ago were you bit?" he asked.

"Not to long after we got out of Costco. Three or four days plus a month I think." I told him, touching the bite.

"Lemme see," he said and reached toward my sleeve. I drew back sharply and he was surprised.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Don't lie." he said and grabbed my wrist and exposed my arm. The bite shone against the light. The skin around it gave the scar I had seen progress everyday.

"It's not bad." he said, "At least it's not infected."

"True, I was going to check it today with Alec."

"Okay, just come back soon. We have another high raid tonight."

"Wouldn't miss it for the world.". I smiled and he smiled back.

With that, he was gone, and I went to the doccart. Alec was there with Jamie on the seat, the distance between them was small and when I came in, Alec went behind the curtain without a word.

"Is everything okay Alec?" I asked.

"Perfect." he said.

"Something tells me otherwise.". I sat on the bed and lifted my sleeve.

"We're fine."

"I didn't say anything about another person." I stated, "What's wrong."

"Its just," Alec sighed, "what kind of a world is this to bring a child into? And what if Jamie dies? I can't raise a kid alone!"

"Chill Alec, Jamie won't die. We have medicine, things that will protect her and the child. And if she does, which is highly unlikely, you're not alone.". Alec stuck the needle into the bite and drew a blood sample.

"I know," he put the blood sample into a small plastic test tube and added a purple liquid, "I just can't lose her."

"You won't lose me." Jamie's voice said, "I'll always be with you.". The once red liquid in the tube was now a blue color.

"Good news Boss, you don't have an infection, just a nasty scar." Alec told me.

"Thanks, are you going to the raid?"

"Absolutely not. I have work to do." he said. I had forgot, ever since we came back, he was trying to acquire information on the recently deceased and make headstones for them. It was sweet, but time consuming.

"Okay, need me to pick anything up?" I asked.

"No, just some medicine." he replied.

"Got it." I said. I travelled back to One where everyone was gathered, suited up they waited and ate the rations for the day. I smiled, this raid would not go wrong; we had weapons, sub-machine guns, automatic pistols, rifles, I was even awarded and AK-47.


	19. Chapter 19

Night fell, we slipped out into the town quietly and headed to the skyscraper that held something more precious than gold, food and medicine. Getting into the tower was easy, it was heavily guarded and only a person with a working brain could get in. Inside, it was pristine, shiny floors and glittering halls; if it wasn't dark, it would have given the impression that nothing was wrong in the world. We climbed, staircase by staircase, until we reached the top. Inside, piles of food and crates of medicine were scattered around the floor.

We grabbed all we could, trying to leave nothing behind. I was nervous, I hadn't been on such a big and important raid since Costco, and I was fearing the same results. It wasn't as terrible as we thought, but to me, it was worse. Jackson, Miles, Aaron, and I had accidentally gotten split from the group. We found ourself in a maze of cubicles and hallways; with luck, we found our way to the stairs yet again. Jackson heaved the door open with all his might and stepped into the dark, tan staircase. I pulled out the walkie talkie that had saved my life in Costco, the one I never let go of.

"Hello, anybody? Can anybody read me?" I asked into the machine.

"Elsa," answered Gabriel, "where the hell are you two? Is Miles and Aaron there? Jackson?"

"Yeah, Miles, Aaron, Jackson, and I are here and fine, bigger question is where are you guys?"

"We're not in the building, we're stuck outside because a massive horde on four and their climbing, fast.". I disconnected the radio.

"What can we do?" asked Aaron.

"I don't know." I heard someone say, but I don't know who; my mind was racing. Okay, I told myself, so we've got evolved walkers heading towards us. Thirty-five stories, so either agonizing death or pointless suicide. No answer seemed right! Suddenly someone blurted out an answer.

"Elevator!" cried Jackson, his head stuck outside the door.

"What?" I asked, snapping out of my daze.

"The elevator over there, it's opened.". I walked over to the door and stuck my head out.

Jackson was right, the yellow arrow shone brightly as the metallic doors slipped open. I darted out of the staircase and caught the door just before it closed.

"C'mon guys!" I screamed. The sound of the oncoming horde was loud as their feet slapped the stairs. One-by-one, the living ran out of the staircase with Jackson last and closing it behind him. He came into the elevator and I frantically pressed the button labeled close doors. It was just about to close when a hand stopped it. I couldn't see if the owner of the hand was infected until the doors fully opened. A woman, dressed in a blue dress suit staggered into the elevator and closed the doors. She was African-American and one sleeve was torn, in that torn sleeve area, was a visible bite complete with blood flow.

"I know I'm infected," she said, keeping her back towards us, "Let me live, but don't let me turn."

We did our best to ignore her, "Is everyone okay?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"Yes."

"No…" said Jackson.

"What?" I asked.

"I'm not okay…" he showed me the massive bite on his arm.

"Jackson!" I cried and ran over to him.

"Don't cry Elsa, please." he said, calm as ever.

"I'm sorry Jackson. Please forgive me."

"For what?"

"Not saving you. We could have done the surgery, I just- I couldn't let you go through the pain. It hurt for me and I don't normally feel pain."

"No, don't be sorry for that," he told me and put my head in his hands, "You did it because you were hurt and didn't want me to be hurt either. It was a noble decision, and I'm proud of you.". Tears were flowing at that time, both him and me.

"Jackson. I love you."

"I love you too Elsa. You are the best sister I could have asked for. Even when this all happened, you were determined to keep me alive and made sure I didn't realize the horrors outside. Thank you." he wrapped his arms around me and held me tight.

"You're welcome little bro.". We stood in the elevator, him in my arms until the strength he held onto me with faded and he fell limp on me. I held him there, knowing full well the threat he would soon pose.

It was Nate who did it. Officially ended Jackson's life. No one had the heart to shoot a ten year old, but he did, he took his gun while I stood in Miles' arms sobbing. I don't hate Nate for it, I was thankful, he did something nobody could do and he didn't want me to have to shoot my baby bro. We headed back to the train, I carried Jackson back and Dean gave him a royal burial. A deep grave, at least six feet tall, in which we had to pull Dean out of. I wore a dress in the first time since God knows how long as they lowered Jackson in. He looked so peaceful, even as the world fell apart around him, he looked truly at peace. We dressed him in the suit he had worn to Jamie and Alec's wedding. The only good thing about being malnourished was that you could still fit into the clothes he wore a year ago. Dean, Gabriel, and Damen officially buried him, giving him shovel of dirt after shovel of dirt. The entire time Jackson was being buried, Miles stood beside me and allowed me to lean on him. They packed the dirt and Alec came out with a headstone, carved on it was

"Here lies Jackson. A brave child who endured the hellish life for five years. He will never be forgotten and will be a constant reminder of how far a siblings love can do for you.". I stood at his grave until the sunset and I was told by Dean to get inside. All during the night I stayed in Twelve, Jacksons room. It looked like any ten year olds room; posters of super heroes and a car. The bedsheet was a special race car pattern on a blue canvas, it was his ever since he was born and I remembered grabbing it before we left our house.

Miles came into the room when the moon was above us.

"Hey." he said.

"Hi."

"Whatcha doing?"

"Nothing really.". Miles stood there and watched me, "What am I going to do without him?"

"You're gonna live, for him, for all of us."

"But he's the only reason I made the choices I did. Every time a raid was about to take place or a big decision was about to be made I thought 'how would this affect Ja-'. I couldn't even finish his name, it hurt so much. I flopped onto his pillow and felt some odd shape beneath the pillow. Pulling it out, I saw what it was; it was the journal I had given to him when he turned four. I remembered he had always wanted something to write about his days so when he got older, he could read it and remember his past. I flipped it open to the first page and read the first day,

_Hello journal, today you were given to me by my sissy Elsa. I am glad. I hope in the future I will read this and see me. I am four. My name is Jackson. I have black hair and black eyes. I am light skinned and I am wearing my bestest shirt with Lightning McQueen given to me by mommy and jeans. I am not wearing socks. My favorite show is Walking Dead with Rick and Carl and the 'walkers'. I want to be a zombie hunter like Daryl with my bow that shoots arrows. I like Dawn of the Dead too. I wanna be like Michael and save everybody. I have to go journal, Elsa is here saying its dinner. I hope it's pizza._

That was the first day a couple of minutes after I had given it to him. When I walked in he was scribbling in it furiously with the door wide open. I flipped to the last entry,

_Hello journal, today was like any other. I woke up, played with Castiel and Creig. Something is weird with Elsa journal, she hasn't been the same since the Costco Raid. I guess the loss gets to her. I never knew Henry or Mary or Joe or Rena or Cory. I heard they were nice people, but I did know Cassy. She was Elsa's boyfriend's best friend's sister. Well, I guess Miles isn't her boyfriend, but they act like it. Plus, if she ever asked if I approved, I would say yes. Miles is a nice guy journal, he's helped Elsa through the Costco deaths. I guess, my only hold back was what happened to her when we still lived with daddy. She thought I never heard, but she would cry and beg the 'Goddess' as she said to make her forget about him. I guess one day she did because she was semi-back to normal and when I asked about Miles, she said 'Who?'. I don't know, maybe Elsa and Miles were actually meant to be together. I mean, through what's happened with the walkers and the two of them being alive and finding each other again, wouldn't someone think that's fate? I don't know. I have to go journal, we have another major raid at a skyscraper in a town called Humette._

I read through it, "He said he thought we were a good pair." I laughed.

"I know, he talked about it to me.". I made a little entry of my own,

_Dearest Journal, I'm sorry to say that during the skyscraper raid mentioned in the last entry, Jackson died due to a bite on the left side of his forearm, similar to mine, only he was not equipped with the high-tech things floating in my bloodstream that saved me. He was a brave boy and wasn't but 10 when he died. Dean buried him in Humette next to the tracks in a six-foot grave. No walker will be digging and mutilating his corpse. We dressed him in the same black tuxedo he wore during Alec and Jamie's wedding. I guess, thats the luck of him being small and our unfortunate malnourishment due to the apocalypse. It was an unfair and tragic death that will stay with me forever. Jackson, if, somehow, you can read this, you were the best brother a sister could ask for. You always tried to keep me happy and only now do I realize that you're teasing got my mind off of subjects that had made me cry. I could never have asked for a better person to share five years of life and five years of destruction with. Be good in the afterlife. Your loving sister, Elsa._


End file.
